Paradox
by Valerianna
Summary: Sakura, a 21st century female, was reborn was a merchant's daughter in an ancient time period, who was picked to be a concubine in Uchiha Household. Basically life is hard. Sasusaku Weekly updates :))
1. Chapter 1

A/N: recently the internet in my house was cut off, I have no choice but to write again. I'm starting a story with each chapter no longer than 1000 words and will be updated daily(at least 5 times a week), as I'm writing this on my phone.

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Chapter 1

When Sakura woke up, she's already in the body of a 16 year old girl with ancient style clothing. Silk and kimono wear, with sashes that ties her waist so tight it became unbearable to breath. She was soaking wet in a elaborate bed, and two other girls are trying to peel her wet clothes off by force while patting her dry with linen.

Sakura screamed, "what the fuck?"

The two girls do not comprehend this sentence but they gathered it can't be good. One of them quickly ran out of the room calling for help and the other was trying to calm down by patting Sakura on the back. Unfortunately Sakura just went from hysterical to having a panic attack seeing the room she's in.

It's made out of wood and carvings. Literally. There are pillars in the middle of the room, wooden stands, brass mirrors, a bed that's encased to the wall, silk sheets and silk bedding, a vanity table with tin pots and pans, and wooden doors that doesn't slide, instead they open the old fashioned way-folding.

She's in a movie set. Sakura thought, this is one of those halitosis pranks in Japan that forces you into a unfamiliar situation and makes you make a fool of yourself.

She ran out the door, bumping into an elderly man who dressed in blue silk and jade pendents on his waist, the man was concerned and furious at the same time.

"Sakura, what are you doing? Get back into bed, you're still sick from falling into a river." He said, quickly composing himself in front of the the two staff around him.

"Who the fuck...?" Sakura' panic attack intensified.

She starts to bawl and trashing around at the same time, "I need to go home! Stop the camera! I'm going home!"

"Stop it Sakura!" The man seemed utterly furious and pained, "you ARE home!"

Upon hearing this, Sakura looked around her, the stone pathways, tall grass and grotesque rocks decorating a yard, ponds and bridges, she couldn't take it anymore.

She fainted.

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Two weeks later.

Sakura sat on one of the small wooden bridges with her feet dangling in the clear pond, feeding fishes while snacking on roasted peas. A girl stood behind her, carefully making sure she doesn't do anything stupid.

Her father worries too much. Sakura already got used to this by now, and if by getting used means doing nothing all day, hang around and play, that's it.

Apparently she's in a merchant's household,m. Her father is a merchant of what she knows of, silk and linens. Her birth mother died a long time ago, her father have had 4 wives, and only two of them are alive right now. Therefore her father's oldest remaining wife, Mito, is in charge of the household, and she doesn't like Sakura much. This does not mean she abuses Sakura, it just means she doesn't care about Sakura and her future as she does her own daughters.

Sakura is the second oldest of five girls. Yes, in this extremely gender biased society, she's so insignificant until she fell into a lake and almost drowned. Everybody fussed over her for a couple days because there was a rumor among the household that she had gone insane and became psychotic, babbling things like "TeeVee" or "Future".

Sakura did go a bit crazy for the first couple of days. She kept on screaming and yelling and crying, until her father called in a doctor, who pulled out his acupuncture needles and poked Sakura until she calmed down. Then he prescribed a mix of herbal medicine that made her barf just by looking at it.

Then when her family begin to visit her, she shut up and stayed quiet.

Sakura isn't an idiot. She knows she's not in her usual environment, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that she really, really, doesn't belong here.

Well for one, she was supposed to be close to 28 years old, lived in Japan, working as a white collar office lady, and was in the 21st century.

This time period, is unlike anything she ever knows. She only remember stereotypes and bits and pieces from textbooks or TV shows.

When people dressed in ancient clothing came to visit her, she could tell from observation who really cares and who are here just to see her act like a joke.

So she shut up and begun observing her surroundings.

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A/N: New story that will be updated daily! Are you guys excited?

Apathy is a big project, probably will hold off on it for now.

I need advice. I need two female protagonist in this story. Mainly it's going to be about Sasuke and Sakura, but Itachi plays an important role. So does this other female protagonist, according to my outlines. Therefore, I need another female protagonist that eventually is paired up with Itachi. There aren't going to be many of her roles, it's going to be about Sakura and Sasuke. Still. Who should I write in as the secondary female protagonist? Normally I'd go with the one I usually pair Itachi up with, an OC named Chiro, but I wonder if people will frown upon OC insertion. Since other female in Naruto are a bit... ahem. But if you guys think of one that fits well with Itachi, please leave your suggestions in review and I will consider them carefully before proceeding with the story.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Two weeks later.

Sakura has concluded that this is a very backwards world, and she can't possibly survive long enough without saying something that gets her killed.

She came from a very liberal family and have had feminism education. Back in 21st century, she and her sister both gone to university and eventually led a happy life. So far, after she came to this place, everything she sees defy her beliefs. For example, starting from the room she has, it has no windows that can open, apparently that's supposed to be the case for girls who are not yet married. She cannot go anywhere freely, her father has had 4 wives, and she has four other sister that all came from different mothers, and she does nothing all day except for copying the book of Women's Discipline, created by a Confucius type scholar that documents what women are supposed to be like.

Behold.

A good woman must never get jealous of her husband's other concubines.

A good woman cannot interfere with business or political matters.

A good woman cannot roam freely about, and must be in the confines of her guardian.

... and it goes on, completing a whole book of this bullshit.

Because Sakura was hysterical, her father bothered to treat her with herbal medicine and acupuncture, and then forced her to copy this book five times.

She supposed that during this time period, copying books are seen as punishments.

Not to mention her younger sisters (Miku 16, Kiko 15) who are basically the reincarnation of Satan. They smile at Sakura in front of her, then twisted Sakura's words and spread rumours that she's insane.

Sakura basically has shut up and begin to calm down and make sense of the world.

This world is much like an ancient society, where men have all the power. Essentially Sakura's fate lies within who she'll marry. There's an Emperor, various subjects, many districts, cities, and land. She's living smack dab in the capital city, Konoha. Her father is a fairly well known individual among the silk society, and has gathered some wealth.

During the first week when she came to, she rode a horse all around the edge of the city, and begin to study this place, because it is brand new to her. Someone rattled on her and she wasn't allowed to go outside by herself again. This incident reassured Sakura that she's not living in a prank or reality TV show. It takes some sort of dedication to create a whole ancient city with its own economy.

But then this cause the question, how is she going to survive?

Well obviously she's going to live. But how is she going to... live happily?

In her previous life she wasn't rich or famous, but she has had a happy family and a fiancée. She was about to get married until she discovered her fiancée was cheating on her. Then she was so devastated she got into a car crash, and when she woke up, she's here in this world.

Sakura doesn't want to make the same mistake again. But she thought that, even when she had free will, she exercised her right and it turns out her fiancée is a lying manipulative son of a bitch, maybe this time she'll go with the flow and live with whomever fate has planned for her.

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A week went by, and the autumn moon festival begin. Everyone dressed their best and went to the temple to pray. Sakura also got a brand new set of clothing.

Speaking of which, her closet was pathetic. Comparing it with her 21st century closet where she had literally hundreds of items to wear, her closet here are in matching sets, and she has less than 10 sets.

Only when a festival comes she's allowed to get a brand new set of clothing.

A set consist of undergarments, bandages for the waist, a gown that goes past her ankles, a cape like cardigan, and several sashes that ties around her waists. Her shoes are usually hidden within her gown, and the gown drops to the floor constantly, mopping up dusts and she walk pasts places.

She thought about complaining, but then she was that her servants only have two or three sets of clothing made it of rough linen that needs to be continually washed and replaced every few months or so, she stayed quiet.

Her makeup box is also a joke. It's ridiculously tiny and consists of a couple of blushes and face powders. There are some red paper for her to run her lips over so she'll have a red lip, and that's it.

Sakura learnt not to wear makeup at all. It's not that she doesn't make an effort to look good, but she seriously thinks that using them might demean her as a woman, also she might have a serious lead poisoning if she kept on using that white face powder.

Her father saw that Sakura begin to behave like a quiet young lady, he gave approval and summoned everyone to the courtyard, announcing that every family member must attend the praying ceremony during Autumn Moon Festival.

And so on that day, everyone begin to get ready and prepare offering of goods to the gods. The entire city was doing it too, so it was kept short, simple, and very, very, crowded.

Sakura tagged along. Due to her accident recently, nobody asked her to do stuff. She followed everyone step by step up a mountain, and placed her offering on the temple table, bowed sincerely and said her prayers (please let me go back to 21st century), and walked back home.

A day later, the news came. Saying that the Governor Yatsumoto of South Konoha district saw one of the Haruno girls praying on the mountains, fell in love with her, and want her to be his 3rd concubine.

He didn't really specify which Haruno girls. The messenger just said, "the pretty one".

More importantly, Governor Yatsumoto is 60 years old.

This is the way of the world. Those who have political power can abuse that power and dictate fates of others.

Of course Haruno-san was extremely agitated. First of all, he raised five girls and wished for them to marry well. The eldest married a jade merchant's son, which was ok, but not great. He placed high hopes for his other daughters hoping they'd marry up, but apparently, the Governor wants one of them. And he wants the prettiest one.

Which one is the prettiest one?

This is so humiliating and insulting to the Haruno household, but alas, it's no use. If they refuse, the Governor can just place a minor misdemeanor charge onto Haruno's business, and whatever he has built will perish away, leaving him destitute.

So Haruno-San called for a family meeting to decide which one of his daughters will marry the 60 years old Governor.

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A/N: Short chapters really motivate me to write more.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Current family meeting.

The entire household sat around a large dining room table discussing who should marry the senior Governor.

Miku was already crying. She doesn't want to marry that 60 year old man who have had multiple wives already.

Kiko was reaffirming desperately that she is the ugliest of all her sisters. She praised Sakura's beauty consistently, comparing her to the goddess of Chang e, who chased the moon.

Sakura snorted at her.

The youngest daughter was still 9 years old still. She's out and about learning her lesson. This doesn't really apply to her.

Mito-san was also yelling incoherently. She doesn't want her two daughters to marry an old man either, but at the same time it's a miracle if they can marry a man of a higher status than the governor. It would mean royalty, and that's something common peasants can even dream to achieve. So it's a dilemma.

Haruno-san finally yelled, "everybody be quiet!"

They all did.

He then turned to Sakura, "I'm going to give you a big dowry. You get on that carriage the day after tomorrow."

Sakura shrugged.

To be honest, this entire world still doesn't feel real to her. She already died once, so if that man forces himself on her, she'll knock him out and jump a lake again.

Also not to mention the fact nothing she says will change the situation, because she knows perfectly what her father was thinking.

From these three weeks of interaction, she gathered that she's the least favorite daughter. Her birth mother died a long time ago, therefore his other two wives have had the chance to force their child to bond closer with Haruno-san. Not to mention the fact that, Sakura is clearly not the prettiest. She's not ugly, just nice and proper looking. Miku and Kiko share the same genes, and both have these fox like feminine feature that's definitely made their lives easier and have gotten more praises. Haruno-san isn't an idiot. He hope to have the girls engage in hypergamy and marry other merchants that will benefit him in the long run. After all, girls are considered marriage commodities in these day and age.

So Sakura was sent on that red marriage carriage to the Governor's house.

Miku smiled at her, "Dear sister, you must be so proud. Now everyone will know you are the prettiest Haruno daughter."

Sakura replied, "If you look really hard, you still can't see the fuck I give about this family."

Miku didn't understand what she was saying, but she knew it was an insult, so she sneered at Sakura and said, "enjoying sharing the same marriage bed with an old man!"

Sakura frowned.

Nevertheless, on she goes.

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When she got to the Governor's manor, she felt the carriage being stopped at the front gates, and the Governor's trembling excited voice, "She's here! She's here?"

He opened up the carriage to let her get down the steps. Sakura had to hold onto his hand, and when she stepped down, she accidentally tripped and her wedding cover fell off her head, revealing her elaborate headdress and her face.

The Governor immediately turned green upon looking at her. Not that she's repulsive, it's that he realizes that he has been cheated out of a prettier bride. Apparently he meant some other Haruno girl, instead of this one.

Sakura kind of predicted this, but still it was embarrassing. Less embarrassing than being on bed and having the Governor taking off her wedding cover headdress and scoff at her plainness, but still, very embarrassing.

So Sakura haven't even made it past the front steps of her supposed new home, she has been sent back to Haruno's house, with a messenger that says, "send the pretty Haruno girl next time."

Haruno-san was of course, furious and embarrassed. Sakura technically didn't get married off, but she still donned the wedding gown and rode the marriage cart. Who will have Sakura now? In addition, Miku or Kiko has to be sent in again for the Governor to marry, so basically this time, he lost his uses for two daughters. If only he sent in Miku or Kiko the first time!

So the next day, Haruno-san decided to send in both Miku and Sakura together to the Governor, as a double bride situation and as well as a deep and sincere apology.

Miku cried the whole night.

Sakura was eating treats and sleeping soundly.

The next day, the wedding gown had to be worn by Miku. Sakura, as an unofficial bride accompanying, just wore a simple light red outfit.

The marriage carriage was late for a few hours, due to Miku's rambling and defying and attempts to run away. Eventually they tied her wrist together and forced her to sit in the cart nice and quiet. Her eyes has been red the entire time. Haruno-san was devastated to see his favorite daughter go, he couldn't even say good-bye.

Sakura rode along the wedding crowd while eating an apple. At this point nobody cared about her much.

When they arrived at the Governor's manor, no one was there to greet them. Apparently a very important person was visiting the Governor's manor, and the Governor had to make himself available to that guest.

So the entire marriage team waited outside for another hour. Until the gates opened, and someone dressed in all black silk and thinly golden embroidered edges walked out.

He does seem excessively important. Other than the six guard following him, the governor also bowed to him and never straightened his back when talking to him. He looked impatient and begin to walk away, but was sidetracked by the marriage crowd, and Sakura, who stood by a stone lion statue looking bored.

He give Sakura a raised eyebrow, and walked on.

Governor quickly checked if Miku was the correct one, and he was extremely satisfied. That's when he saw Sakura, and frowned, "why is she here?"

One of the butler quickly said, "Governor Yatsumoto, did you see the Royal Highness's reaction? He looked at that girl for a moment! He must be interested in her for some reason, since she's here, Haruno-san obviously don't want her back. Why don't we do the Royal Highness a favor and send her in to his manor as a gift? He'll think highly of your generosity in the future, for sure you'll get promoted even more than you are now!"

The Governor thought that was a great idea. So he ordered people to clean Sakura up and dress her better, then send her into The Royal Prince, Uchiha Sasuke's manor,

Sakura had no idea what was going on. She was just eating an apple when this unbelievably handsome dude raised his eyebrow at her, and left.

Fate works in mysterious ways.

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A/N: Yay! Sasuke appeared! I hate it when the male protagonist doesn't appear for pages.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Apparently once you step into the Royal manor, it's really, really hard to walk out.

Sakura realized it when she was placed into the East Wing of the Uchiha Manor, which consists of 12 rooms surrounding a courtyard, and each room has 2-3 girls sharing it, and they are all concubines of Uchiha Sasuke.

To say concubine might be a over exaggeration. These girls, their biggest wish is to spend a night with the Royal Prince and get pregnant, then they're going to swim in luxury and forever be valued as a member of the royal family, whereas Uchiha Sasuke doesn't really know they exist.

The Uchiha Manor is a large, large, place sitting on at least a hundred acres of land. You'd have to walk five minutes from one end of the place to another. The center court is reserved for the Royal Prince himself, South Wing for guards and staff, East Wing for concubines and other female servants, West Wing for important guests, studies, libraries.

The Royal Prince is the twin brother of the Emperor, who lives within a much larger fortress in the center of Capital city. The current Emperor only has been on the throne for 8 years. He is a good Emperor, maintaining peace and minding politics everyday. Up to this day, he claims he is way too busy with the country to have children. So since he sat on the throne, there hasn't been an heir for eight years.

But the Emperor is still very young, so people don't worry much.

Uchiha Sasuke is the twin brother (not to mention the only surviving brother) of the Emperor. He and the Emperor are quite close. Sasuke has always had a lack of interest in politics. He loves hunting, sword fighting, and all things new and interesting. The Emperor adores his little brother, therefore he gave his brother the most honorable title available, a huge piece of land, lots of wealth and artifacts, and some soldiers to train.

Even though Uchiha Sasuke doesn't dabble in politics, there are always people knocking on his door asking his opinion, or tattle tale on one another, or try to win him over on their side so he will say good things about them to his brother. Uchiha Sasuke sees through all of this, and he developed a personal distaste for people who are excessively nice to him. Which pretty much includes everyone in existence. His position does not allow disobedience, therefore when Sakura first got here, she knew she was screwed.

The second clue Sakura received, was a loud cry coming from the center courtyard. She and the other girls ran into the yard to see what's going on, and they saw a young girl dressed in servant's clothing, crying and being beaten by a huge boat-paddle like device.

The paddle slams down on to her body, while the butler stood emotionlessly and counts the number of hits.

When he reaches hits 20, the soldier wielding paddle stopped, and the girl couldn't even make a sound anymore. She passed out from the pain. The butler walked away while rest of the girls quickly helped the unconscious one to the doctor's.

Blood was pooling down on the ground, and immediately there are people who came in with buckets of water and scrubbing towels, cleaned up the blood before it stained.

"What the hell happened?" Sakura hissed under her breath at her roommate, who is a thin and nice looking girl named Sadako.

Sadako said quietly, "this girl, she accidentally splattered ink droplets on his Royal Highness's sleeve while he's writing a letter. Of course he was furious, so he delivered this punishment."

Sakura gasped, "what if this had killed her?"

Sadako shrugged but looked sad, "Then it's her fault. Just last month there was a girl who tried to climb into his Royal Highness's bed and got tossed out and sent to the army as a prostitute..."

Sakura shivered, and for the first time, she felt scare of this place.

At least when she's back home at Haruno Household, there was no fear of being beaten to death, or be forced into prostitution.

Sakura walked back to her room, praying she'll never see that awful murderer again.

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A month has passed.

Sakura was living happily in this manor as a jobless, futureless, prospective-less parasite, when a servant girl fell sick to the flu, and asked Sakura to fill in for her. The job is to bring the Royal Prince's dinner to the dining table, that's it.

Sakura was very nervous. First of all, there are way too much rules in this place. For example the butler repeatedly tells them not to look at the Prince directly in the eye, not to speak to him, and not to make a sound when the prince is eating. Act like you're part of the wall, be as invisible as possible. Sakura can do invisible, but she can't do standing in front of a tyrant for too long. Especially since she really is in contempt of this person from the bottom of her heart.

And she was way too naive thinking it takes one trip to deliver a meal. Apparently she had to do 4 trips, each trip carrying 5 dishes, just for the Prince's lunch.

So he eats 20 dishes of food for lunch?

They're not tiny dishes either. Each dish is a normal sized plate full of food. Sakura laid them out one by one, under the instruction of the butler. Apparently soup goes in the middle, cold dishes goes on the left. Hot dishes served on the right, in the center is a choice of starch of noodles, rice, or buns. Spicy dishes sits far on the edge, and several jade empty plates are laid aside, along with silver chopsticks used for testing poison.

Sakura thought if she ever had to go through all this while eating, Just kill her.

She stood by the door looking down, being as quiet as possible.

When it's meal time, Uchiha Sasuke walked in. He took no notice of Sakura, and sat down.

The butler quickly came up and begin to pick out all sorts of food from various dishes and made them into a tiny pâtée within a jade plate using silver chopsticks, and placed them in front of Sasuke

Sasuke, being used to this, begin to eat. Sakura snuck a peek at the Prince, and realized, he is extremely good looking.

This doesn't come as a surprise, most girls who marry into royalty should be at least pretty. So it seems that generations and generations of beauty are passed down to the pinnacle of perfection and exemplify itself in the Royal Prince.

Sakura frowned. She thinks this Prince looks somewhat familiar, but she can't remember when or where or how he existed in her memory.

By this time, Sasuke was half full. He looked over and realized Sakura is the new girl. She's really in her own little world, making strange expressions while thinking her own thoughts.

Sakura isn't a traditionally pretty girl, her has a round and lovable face, slight round build and bright eyes. When she smiles there are a couple of dimples showing. Sasuke doesn't know why, but he thinks she's extremely comforting to look at.

So he made up his mind, pointing at Sakura and said to the butler, "have her help me to bed tonight."

Then he left, leaving a dumbstruck butler and a even dumber stricken Sakura.

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A/N: I'll keep it PG don't worry. Teehee

In terms of the plot, Maybe I'm moving too fast, that's only because there are so much more plot line to cover. I'll slow down based on reviews and opinions by readers. One reader suggests Izumi as Itachi's love interest, which I thought was an lovely idea. Mainly because nobody knows too much about her character to set it in stone, I can mold her personality a bit into what I want.

Thank you for the reviews last chapter, I was floored. In the beginning I thought not many people were on this site anymore, it's nice to see after years and years, little readers are still engaged in this wonderful passion community.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Sakura thought she heard it wrong.

"What?" She asked the butler.

He smiled widely, "you must've saved a country in your previous life time to have all the luck, the Prince wants you to serve him at his bedside! Quickly come, I'll tell you about some rules to watch out for, also, don't eat anything from now til you finish serving his Royal Highness..."

"Why?" Sakura is extremely passionate about food.

"Do you want to burp or fart in front of the Prince?" The butler asked rhetorically as if Sakura is stupid.

Sakura was still deciding between understanding the phrase "help me to bed" means helping him to get ready for bed, or helping him in bed to do stuff.

She's not particularly worried about potential sex. She already knows this is what a concubine must do, but she would much rather do it with someone she likes. So far, she doesn't really like Sasuke, except for his looks. Which, would probably cause an uproar everywhere he goes if he's back in her world, the 21st century.

Speaking of, Sakura found that her memory of her own world is rapidly fading. She knows most common typical stuff like cars and toilets etc, but familial stuff is almost forgotten. She only remembers bits and pieces of her family, she roughly remembers she had a sister who adored her, and where she went to school, and her cat, Mr. Snuffles.

Sakura was dragged into a huge steaming wooden bath tub with flower petals and essential oils, and a few bath girls came in to scrub her clean from top to bottom. Lathered her hair with soap and scrubbed her teeth with soft tree bark, and made sure every inch of her smells nice, and then have her recite Disciplines of Being a Good Woman, before waiting till the sunset comes, and send her into Sasuke's chambers.

Sakura stood at the corner, and observed.

The Prince has a large bed chamber, also made out of wood. But the quality of the wood is vastly different from Sakura's house. Even just by looking, she knew that even the vase in this room would probably worth more than her life by this world's standards. The bed itself is also attached to the wall, except the drapes are made with some sort of silk mesh, and the elaborate 3d carving of mystical creatures made it all the more majestic. Sasuke was sitting in front of a large wooden desk by the window, and to the left is a jade plate containing quartz cups and a jade pot full of laurel wine. He was reading a book and paid no attention to Sakura for the first few minutes. Until he finished reading the page and said to her, "turn the page, fill up my cup."

She quickly walked over and carefully turned the page, and poured some wine into his cup.

And the room was silent again.

Sasuke read another few pages before being curious with Sakura's behavior. Normally when a girl gets the chance to be close to him, they flirt, they act weak, they do everything they can to get him into bed. But this girl is as still as a statue.

He then decided it's time for bed, and said, "put the book away."

Sakura quickly did that, and when she turned around, she saw Sasuke standing behind her, with his arm stretched open.

Is he asking for a hug? Sakura wondered at first, then saw his impatient expression, and realized he's waiting for her to undress him.

Oh my god.

She quickly peeled his clothing off layer by layer. For royalty there are a lot of layers to put on, she couldn't help but be amazed st the quality of his clothing. They're lightweight, super cool to the touch, and golden thread hand embroidered. She wondered if this one piece could sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars in the future, or be displayed in a museum.

After she's done, Sasuke is only wearing his undergarments. He lay on the bed and leaned against his elbow, "well?"

He looked more seductive with his clothes off than being adorned in silk.

Sakura waited until this moment, and quickly said, "Royal Highness, I need to ask you something. Have we met before?"

He scoffed, "there's a line I haven't heard before."

"No, this isn't a line. Truly, I feel like I've met you before, a long long time ago." Sakura said sincerely, but silently thought to herself, rather I've met you a few hundred years into the future , "do you remember?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "A long time ago huh? Maybe in our previous lifetime?"

Sakura's face turned bright red. He's mocking her.

He laughed, using a finger to raise her chin, "who told you to say these things? Did you think it'd intrigue me?"

Sakura blinked, insisting, "No, it's true, I remember because your eyes..."

Sasuke apparently have no patience for her anymore. He reached over and grabbed her waist, pulling her down onto the bed with him. Smiling.

Sakura was so spooked she quickly twisted and backed away. He didn't force her, apparently since you're a royalty, everything that comes at you is within the palm of your grasp, therefore Sakura couldn't get away even if she tried.

Suddenly a breeze came in through the window, and Sasuke frowned, tilting his head.

Sakura quickly jumped off the bed to close up that window, and then turned to day, "Royal Highness, you must've drink a tad bit too much, let me help you massage your head, it'll make you feel better."

Sasuke thought she's jumping right ahead into foreplay, so he uttered, "en."

But to his surprise, Sakura actually started massaging his temple and scalp, and her hands never wandered around.

Eventually it got so comfortable he begin to feel sleepy. So he laid down on her lap and fell asleep.

Sakura realized a few moment later that he's asleep already. She quickly let out a breath that she has been holding since this morning and carefully moved his head back down onto the pillow. During this process, Sasuke frowned in his sleep and mumbled something incoherently. She quickly patted his head and said softly, "shhh... it's alright... everything is alright... I'm right here..."

She used to do it with Mr. Snuffles.

The Royal Prince soon slept soundly.

She's still struggling with her memory. The Prince does look extremely familiar now that she had a good look at him. Where has she seen him before?

Also she's positive once he wakes up in the morning he will forget her in his mind.

She quickly pulled off a small strand of her hair and wrapped it around his index finger, just so he'll remember who she is and maybe he'll remember where he has seen her.

She quickly cleaned up the table, and just when she doesn't know what to do next, she heard a hissing voice. "Hey!"

It's the soldiers standing guard the doors, "you need to leave now!"

Sakura quickly remembered, the Royal Prince hates having women in his bed when he wakes up. She better go right now.

She creeped out of the room as quietly as possible, and ran back to her chambers.

Her roommate Sadako was so excited to see her.

"Did you do it? How was it?" Sadako asked eagerly, almost yelling, "do you think you've made an impression?"

"I didn't do it." Sakura said, blinking, "I massaged his head and he fell asleep."

Sadako now looks at Sakura as if she's the biggest idiot in the world.

A knock came through the door, and an elderly female servent held a bowl of black herbal medicine. "Haruno-san, you should drink this as soon as possible."

Sakura frowned, "what is it?"

The servent said monotonously, "so you wouldn't get pregnant."

Sakura waved her hand, "it's ok, I didn't do the deed with the Prince. We hardly touched each other."

Now there are two people who are looking at Sakura as if she's the biggest idiot in the world.

The elder maid recovered, "regardless. It's my duty to watch you swallow every drop."

Oh well.

Sakura took the bowl and drank it up.

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A/N: Please review! I take all suggestions very seriously!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Morning.

Sasuke twirled with the strand of hair tied to his finger, and then finally decided, "have that girl come to my room tonight again."

Servent who stood nearby answered with a, "very well, Royal Highness", and went off to prepare for tonight.

Sasuke doesn't know what it is about Sakura, but whenever she tries very hard not to look at him, or when she trembles, it seems as if she's obedient and comfortable to be with. She doesn't overstep her boundaries or push her position too far to test his limits, which, he found, is what most people do when he shows even a small amount of mercy.

He looked down at the morning scrolls, opened up the first one, and felt a headache coming up.

It's the flood that happened down south, there has been rain for seven days straight. The Emperor already sent over immediate help, soldiers and emergency supplies are on their way, still there are reports of abuse of power and corruption. Death count toll is going up, and the border defense reported of enemy sighting along the patrol line.

When it rains, it pours. Literally.

By midday, Sasuke was summoned to the royal court. He was in the middle of eating, as soon as he heard he quickly place his chopsticks down and got ready to go into the Royal Palace.

The Royal Jade Palace is a fortress in of itself. A dream so beautiful to common people it's almost cruel. It's sat right in the center of Capital City, and was guarded by hundreds of soldiers day and night. The of the Royal palace alone approached thousands. The current Emperor is a good emperor. He didn't fell into debauchery as deep as his predecessors, therefore he only allowed four one Empress and three concubines in his court.

High Court is a place of meeting. It's built with the best material imaginable, fixed high up upon 99 ivory steps. Each and every morning all important subjects of the Emperor gather up and walk those 99 step to discuss matters of the world and make decisions based on them. There are two separate categories, the Arts, which include city planning, economy, finances, and all matters that are discussed on paper. Then the Army, which include national defense, border patrol, and soldier training. The subjects of the court are divided into nine level, apart from actually royal bloodlines, the first level are Ministers of each area of importance. Minister of Finance, Minister of public health... so on. The second level are under the control of each minister, which are divided by regions of the country. Then the third level are divided by cities.. and so on, down to the nineth level, which are minuscule political titles that are in charge of a small section of a city.

Only the first three levels are allowed within court, and must reside within the capital city, some may patrol the country from time to time. All other levels are spread around the country to do their duty.

Even though only important politicians come to court everyday, there are still close to a couple hundred head counts that ascend the 99 steps of court. It's an exhausting journey that only strengthens its traveller the extreme pressure of being in court.

Luckily, this was an unofficial meeting. Everyone who works in court knows what Sasuke looks like, so he walked calmly past the grand hall of High Court and into the back rooms of private meeting chambers.

Uchiha Itachi sat on a jade armchair, donned in bright gold robe, transfixed upon the board in front of him. Black and white pieces spread about. Sasuke walked straight in and sat down in front of him.

They're the splitting image of each other. They look almost identical, as if God created one and thought, wow this is my masterpiece, I'll just do a copy and paste here...

Itachi was born three minutes earlier, therefore he was deemed to be the Crown Prince from birth. Sasuke happened to be younger, so he was destined to be the brother who supports the Emperor. The fate of these two was sealed the moment they breathed fresh air.

Itachi looked up, and smiled.

"Sasuke."

"Brother."

Both eliminated official titles when in private. Itachi then looked towards the girl who stood by the door holding a pot of tea. She immediately understood, came in and filled both cups, bowed to them while exiting the room and closing the door behind her.

"I heard the Court was busy today."

"Minister Jiraiya-sama and Orochimaru-sama were debating on the importance of a trusted line of distribution. Indeed it was interesting."

"Did Orochimaru-sama reinforce his position on business and politician profits?"

"Yes indeed, insisting mutual interests will benefit both the people and the office..."

"And the accountability for responsibility?"

"Irrelevant."

"Ah, I see. Of course Jiraiya-sama was outraged?"

"Naturally."

... And the conversation went on. Both knew exactly what the other wants to say. Both knew what was needed to talked about, but both skirts around the issue and talk circles around each other, and yet both knows exactly what the other person meant.

"Mother came by." Itachi said, finally moving a piece on the board.

Sasuke frowned. There's only one reason the Dowager Empress would come, and that's to talk about...

"It's time for you to select a Princess Consort."

"Really? What did she say about you? And that... body you've placed?"

Itachi smiled at him, "but I already have a Crown Empress."

"I'll wait until the next Crown Prince is born before I actually settle down." Sasuke said, almost sarcastically. "Judging from your.. progression, I'd say I'll wait quite a while."

Itachi sighed, "Foolish little brother..."

Sasuke made a move on the piece and devoured most of his brother's white pieces.

Itachi merely chuckled and allowed this defeat, "stay for tea. The kitchen got a batch of fresh lychee this morning. I asked them to have some treats made for you..."

XxxxxxxxXxxxxxx

A/N: Good Day!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Sakura was eating a meat bun while suddenly having a craving for chocolates when the order came that she must be scrubbed and cleaned all over again in order to prepare for tonight.

Both Sadako and the elder servent who delivered these messages were extremely happy for her, "you've certainly made an impression with the Royal Highness! Quickly! You need to be cleaned and powdered..."

So against her will, Sakura was dragged to the wooden tub and be scrubbed. They even used a silver pick to clean underneath her fingernails, clipped them, and filed them until they're round and smooth. Apparently if she scratched him, whether accidental or intentional, the end for her is death.

Sakura only wanted to talk about her memories and if he potentially has memories of his previous life time. She imagined she accidentally slipped through the fabric of time and fell into this world. So she can't be the only one in this entire world to have slipped through. Maybe Sasuke was hiding something, maybe he came from 21st century too. How would she approach this subject without sounding like an idiot or get herself killed? She mentally prepared herself and wondered back and forth what to say to him.

When she went back to her chambers, they left her in the courtyard and told her to stay under the sun and let her hair dry naturally. She was falling asleep under the warm sunshine when she heard giggles come from inside one of the room.

A few of the many other girls who reside in this Wing came and brought tea and snacks.

"Sakura-chan. We heard you're getting the chance to serve our master again tonight. You must be thrilled."

Sakura smiled bitterly. "Of course I am."

This was seen as sarcasm by one of the girls in a double hair bun. She bit her lips and quickly hid her jealousy and offered up some fresh mochi, "I heard you're not allowed to eat for the rest of the day. I went to the kitchen and begged them for a plate, you must be starving."

Sakura is starving. She gratefully thanked her and ate them all.

The girls gawked as Sakura wolfed down the entire plate.

"Are there more?" She asked shamelessly, snacks are snacks after all, not actual meals.

The girl stuttered, "ye... yeah, I'll go get more.."

Sakura waited for them to get more snacks, but to her dismay they never came back.

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By midday afternoon, Sakura's stomach begin to growl. She thought it was just hunger so she paid it no mind. The servant girls are rubbing essential oils into her hair strand by strand. Her hair is ridiculously long because according to customs, hair is something you are born with and given to you by your parents. You cannot cut it unless under extraneous circumstances. Like, forsaken material possessions, enter a temple, and become a nun.

Then her stomach growled louder. One of the servant girls giggled, "Sakura-chan, why don't I go and grab some sweet tea for you to drink up, just to quench your hunger for a little."

Sakura thought about it and said, "add fruits in it and make it a fruit tea!"

Her stomachs growled louder.

That's when the pain started to hit, and she quickly jumped off from her dressing table and ran towards the bathroom.

She spent the next hour there, until everything in her stomachs has been emptied out, and she can't possibly vomit anything else up other than her stomach acid, then she was escorted back into her chambers, where she fell asleep, pale and sweating.

When night fall came, an elderly servant named Riku came to get her, and when she saw Sakura's state, she decided, "you can't possibly serve our Master with your current illness. I'll report back to his Royal Highness and he'll decide what to do."

Sakura rolled her eyes while holding her stomach. She actually feels a lot better, but she'd much rather not sleep with him.

Riku-san has served with the Royal Prince for a long, long time. She has also been in this household long enough to know its people and irregularities. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that Sakura fell sick the night she's supposed to serve the prince. Thinking of this, she shared her description of the event with Sasuke, hiding her suspicions.

Sasuke isn't an idiot. He frowned for a moment before saying finally, "I loath these little tricks. Investigate and bring all parties involved here before me."

Riku-san quickly answered, "yes", and did as she was told.

Therefore, Sakura was descending towards dreamland when she heard loud screams, beating sounds and begging sounds.

She quickly bolted up, found her stomach is actually feeling much better, and with the help of Sadako, she ran to the central courtyard.

Soldiers were standing in a line, every other soldier is holding torches, looking emotionlessly ahead. In the middle, there are two soldiers using huge paddles to repeatedly beat the girl who fed Sakura mochi snacks at midday today. Her hair and clothes have been ripped apart, and she's bare naked, being beaten to death. One servant stood beside the scene, emotionlessly counting, "11," a hit. "12", another hit... The girl was screaming and crying hysterically from the pain, and three other girls standing behind behind her are also stripped naked, waiting for death.

The girls saw Sakura and immediately knelt down to her and yelled with the utmost sincerely, "Sakura-chan, please forgive us, we didn't mean to.."

"We just wanted to play a little prank..."

"Please, Sakura-chan, please..."

Sasuke sat on a jade armchair above the steps of the courtyard with some servants standing behind him. Looking down at these scenes coldly. He raised his arm with a cup, and the servant quickly filled his cup with wine.

Sakura felt sick again, she quickly realized what's going on and wobbled up to the steps, and knelt down with the utmost sincerity, "Your Royal Highness, I... I..."

Sasuke raised a hand, and the beating stopped at 18. Reason is because the girl was screaming so loudly he couldn't hear what Sakura was saying.

Sakura turned her head away from the bloody sight and keeping her head down while stuttering to Sasuke. "I... I actually feel a lot better... it wasn't anything serious. I've always had a stomach problem... p...please, let them live!"

Sasuke frowned.

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A/N: teehee.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Uchiha Sasuke stared down at the trembling Sakura for a moment, then decided to let them go with a wave of his hand. His servants and soldiers quickly understood the gesture, both the girl being beaten to unconsciousness and three others are being carried off to the army and spend the rest of their lives in prostitution.

Well at least they're alive.

Sasuke stood up and returned to his chamber, motioning Sakura to follow him. Which she did numbly.

He sat down and pointed to the book he read yesterday and said, "flip to the page where I've been reading yesterday."

If this was any other person, they'd be horrified because most commoners do not know how to read. Sakura however, is an enlightened 21st century female who have probably read more books in her life time than anyone here, so she remembered exactly where he read. It's just a very boring political book that she had no interest in. Therefore she flipped to that page and placed the book down on the table in front of him.

Her hand was shaking, he saw.

She retreated to the back corner, looking down at her feet, standing as still as possible.

Sasuke smirked.

He could tell, she's really spooked this time. She probably haven't seen anything like this before in her life time, or have been so closely involved within it. He was bemused, and wondered where she had the audacity to tie a strand of hair around his fingers yesterday.

Sakura, on the other hand, was trying to take deep breaths as quiet as possible, while not draw attention to herself. She almost wanted to turn around and face the wall if it wasn't for the fact that damn Prince need his pages to be flipped. How lazy can a person get? When he finishes a page, he doesn't even make a sound. Instead he tilts his head slightly up and give her a mild look. That's indication enough he needs something, and it's up to Sakura to figure out what.

Sakura thought about what happened, the wounds and flesh appeared before her, and she had to physically force herself not to shiver. Those girls are all no more than 15. They're st an age where they want to explore the world and be curious about what happened and make mistakes. This one mistake apparently cost them their future. In this body, she's only a 16 year old girl. However she have lived for almost three decades in her previous life time. There are something that experience and time built that can't be taken away. She has the nerves to hold down seeing something like this and not be too affected by it- If it was in the news. But when observed st first hand, it's something else entirely. She remembered that photographer who went to Africa and took photos of starving children who are on the verge of dying. When he goes back to the Americas, he begin to spiral into depression and alcoholism. Seeing things with your own eyes have a profound impact on one's psychological being, and Sakura is being impacted right now.

She thought for a long time why this is, and have concluded that basically, this prince doesn't really treat people like human beings.

He has been so detached from reality, or perhaps he was born this way, that he has forgotten the sanctity of life. This order, this royalty, supposably, is what governs every being in this world. It's no use to start blabbing about feminist ideals and human rights violations, because she'll be crushed like a bug.

Maybe her value lies less than of a bug. This person can take away a life by a flick of his fingers. He stands above millions of others, and he can't find the reason-from the bottom of his deep, black heart-to have mercy.

Little did Sakura know, he showed mercy today, based on her words. He let those four poor souls live. And this world is much more complicated to be judged from a 21st century perspective. Without total surveillance, absolute order means peace and prosperity.

Sakura felt terrified of this man, and decided, the only way to escape is to take matters in her own hands, and grab onto her own fate.

Sasuke didn't know what was going on in her head. He saw that she's getting paler, and remembered her upset stomach. He turned to her and said, "you may return to your chambers and rest. Have the doctors take a look."

Sakura bowed deeply before exiting. She didn't look at him straight in the face once.

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Sakura spent the next two days in bed, contemplating on issues. Then she finally decided what she wanted to do, which was, to buy herself out from this hellhole.

First she has to make money.

She already got it all figured out and begin a master plan in her little sheets of scrap paper. There aren't any pens at this time, so she borrowed a think thistle brush from one library, and begin doodling in her scrap paper. She has asked what it takes to buy a typical servant in the Royal Household, and placed he amount down on top. Apparently it's three hundred silver coins. Her monthly wage is 18 silver coins, with the potential to increase if she serves the Prince well.

She spent some time getting to know the monetary system in this world. The smallest unit is bronze coins. Two coins can get you a hot meal. One bronze coin can get you an egg or a cup of tea. 12 of them stringed in one loop is called a skewer of coins, which happens to be the equivalent of one silver coin.

She then asked around what the other servant girls are earning, they're even less.

So she's still technically a "concubine" who does servant work once in a while. As do all staff members of this household. She's just free for the taking of the Prince wishes it. The Prince can also take a servant girl if he wants to. Basically the master of the household can do whatever he wants, and everybody is literally revolving around him like planets to the sun.

Figuring this out, she has already been here almost two months and spent some money on necessities like fabric and sewing items. She calculates how much she'll have by next time the payday comes, and discovered she'll save up to almost 30 silver coins.

But she needs ten times that amount to buy herself out, and even then, she wasn't sure if the Prince will agree.

Maybe she could ask her family for help. To see if they will lend her the money for freedom.

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A/N: I should mention right about now, that I've written these chapters about a week in advance saved up, so I don't run out of ideas or stock that leaves me MIA for days. But if I do run out of chapters, I'll warn you guys and you'll be ready. Thank you so much my lovelies:)


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Sakura requested for a day of vacation, to go home and see her family. The main housekeeper's name is Shino-san. He has been in charge of this household for a few years now. He keeps a forever expressionless façade. Sakura can't figure him out, but found him to be a man of extreme caution and exercise the skill of observation to his full advantage.

He pondered for a few moments when Sakura requested this, and finally said, "I'll have to see."

After Sakura leaves, he immediately walked over to the main courtyard personally, where the Royal Prince was looking at his sword collection.

Sasuke has never been a politician. When the twins were born, legend has it that the sky was dyed into a bright orange hue, signaling prosperity and peace. The infant who was born first has to be the future Emperor, therefore the boy who came later must be distinguished through some sort of physical characteristic. The previous Emperor decided that he would have a seal of the character "Prince" be forged of tin and copper, then burn it until its flaming red, and stamp it onto the upper right shoulder on Sasuke's back.

And 24 years later, the mark was still there, never fading.

The Emperor himself, of course, was never marred by anything. He was born to be perfect, and anything that would leave a scar on his would be profane.

Perhaps it's exactly how for fate has intended, the two brothers were raised separately, against the effort of themselves. Ever since they can walk and talk, they tried everything to be together. Itachi was raised within the confines of High Court, shut in a room all day and learn various political theories and ways of the ancients, while Sasuke had to learn with the other royal children, common knowledges of arts and sciences.

Sasuke showed interests in weapons at a relative young age, and he would always claim over the old oak tree over the court wall, and jump off to find Itachi. Itachi would always be the happiest when he sees Sasuke. The two bothers are so connected they almost have a telepathic ability of knowing what the other person is thinking just be looking at one another. Often when Itachi doesn't feel well, Sasuke would have a headache or throw a tantrum no matter how far they're apart.

When they're at the age of 12, the Emperor decided that they shouldn't meet too much, and sent Sasuke to a temple up the mountains for five years. He also cut down the old oak tree that stood by the court walls for hundreds of years.

When the twins were 15, The Emperor passed away.

The entire palace was in a heavy turmoil. Some people thought it wasn't appropriate for a 15 year old Crown Prince to step up to the throne. The Dowager Empress Uchiha Mikoto along with Uchiha Itachi, seized power over the course of 7 days, while decapitating the heads of over 30 treacherous ministers, cousins and brothers who wanted the seat, their families and countless rebel soldiers, eventually they had a stable control of the court.

Sasuke heard all of this happening, and yet he didn't make a single move. He remained in the temple for two whole years until Itachi one day went up the mountain with a huge flourish of parade to welcome his only live brother home. Itachi then immediately gave him the highest honour a brother of an Emperor could have, many wealth, land, and built him a brand new manor right next to the Jade Palace.

Sasuke knew.

He knew perfectly well that if he had gone back the moment his father passed away, he would be dead before he enters the city, under the orders of Itachi, and buried with all their other brothers.

His love of swords and weapons never wavered. Itachi fulfilled his hobby by scourging the land of the best sword smiths, the best bow master, and have them construct their magnum opus and brought it to him. Sasuke cherished every single piece, and have a pricey little collection of these weapons. He frequently use them during his hunts and into various battles he fought for this country. Each of them have been through life to death and back with him. When he wield them, he could feel their spirit resonating with his, and cleaning them became a ceremonial ritual of some sort. As if there are gods live within each piece, perfection of their kind, and when in battle within his hands, they come alive.

Shino waited until Sasuke finished polishing one of his swords and placed it down, then said to him, "Sakura-san requested a vacation day to see her family. Shall I approve?"

Sasuke frowned. "Did she say why?"

Shino replied obediently, "no".

Sasuke decided she wasn't important enough for him to say no, so he nodded and continue on oiling his next bow.

Shino retreated quietly with a soft, "Yes, Master."

XxxxxxxxXxxxxxxx

Sakura went home under the escort of one of the guards, and everyone came to see her. They want to know what life was like in a royal household, what do they eat, what's the master like, and if she has slept with anyone important yet.

All valid questions.

Sakura dodged them masterfully and requested to speak with her father alone after dinner.

After living in Uchiha Manor, coming back home is like descending from a castle to a wood cabin. Despite that, the Harunos are fairly upper middle class compared to most of the other commoners. They could afford 7 to 8 servants, as well as maintaining a large business.

The food they ate was communal, around ten plates on a table, and everyone ate together, talking and laughing about their day. Everyone filled Sakura in on what happened to the other member of the family, which was nothing. They're all alive and well.

After the meal, most of the plates are cleaned out. Even in this large household, waste of food is unforgivable.

Sakura approached her Father in the study after dinner. She expressed her need for 300 silver coins, and wished to take it out as a loan.

"Why?" Haruno-san was surprised.

Sakura made the fatal mistake of telling him the actual reason.

"How dare you think like this!" Haruno-san was furious. So much so that he took his jade paper weight and threw it towards the floor. "Once you enter a Royal Household, you cannot just walk out so easily! Technically you are already married! To the Royal Prince! If he deem it necessary to let you go, you will walk out in shame!"

"But I'm not married to him!" Sakura retorted, flushing red, "I don't have a proper title, I don't stand next to him, I didn't even sleep with him! I am a girl who still have her chastity in tact, and I will do well for myself if I leave that place!"

"You will be disgraced! Everyone in town knew you were escorted into the Prince's Manor, everyone in my business knew that I have a daughter who is the concubine of the Royal Highness, you, on the other hand, is a ungrateful wench that's ruining your future!"

"I will never be his wife!" Sakura screamed, "do you realize your position, and in turn, my position? I will forever stay in the background along his success and status! I am a merchant's daughter! I have nothing, nothing else to offer, and I can't possibly be of any use to you, in business, or to him, in politics!"

Haruno-san looked stunned at her speech. He suddenly felt very exhausted. He pulled the chair towards him and sat down, sighing.

Sakura was still riding that high from screaming. She quickly recovered herself and calmed down.

Haruno-san spoke finally, "you can't leave. You will never marry anyone if you do. Rumours, vicious rumours will circle our house and reputation like death crow, and they will ruin us. A silk merchant with a daughter who is disgraced by Royalty. I will loose all business, Your family will all starve and perish."

For the first time, Sakura looked at the man closely, and discovered him to be old and gray, tortured by age and pressure to be the head of this family.

Sakura stared at him coldly, "life without freedom isn't worth living."

Haruno-san recited the rule that kept him alive all these years, "accept your fate, move on."

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A/N: hard to imagine the life people were living a few hundred years ago. Please review! It's the motivation that keeps me going! Also I'm thinking of dialing this back to update every other day.. mhmm...


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Accept your life, and move on.

Sakura wanted to strangle something right now.

She walked back with the guard early next morning, under the suggestion of her father.

When she got back, Riku-san asked her if she was well enough to serve the Master, Sakura lazily replied, "I'm having some trouble these couple days. You know, it happens every months."

Riku-san stared at her in a strange way. Normally girls would kill for the chance to jump into bed with the Royal Prince. They'd fight and back stab each other to sabotage their chances. This girl is able to save four lives with just a plead, yet she doesn't want to continue on getting the good graces of the master. It almost seems like she's avoiding him.

Then she understood. This girl is playing a long game. The game of the con. The game to set longer fishing lines and hook bigger fish.

Riku-san smiled and reported back to Shino-san that Sakura is inconvenient for the next few days.

Sakura isn't lying. Her period really did came.

The way that people dealt with it here was to use extra thick clothes and pad it in their underwear. Their normal clothing would be long dresses, so if blood accidentally soak through, they themselves would feel it but it wouldn't show. This is a very messy way to deal with the period but that's how girls lived. Sakura missed the days where she could buy all sorts of hygiene products and still move around freely.

Sasuke thought Sakura would miss him like crazy by now. Here is a girl who tied her hair on his finger and made up lies to see him. So he took pity on her, and said, "Have her serve me my meals."

Shino-san was puzzled, but didn't question the decision.

So the next morning, Sakura had to serve Sasuke at breakfast. She was woken up very early in the morning to be taught lessons and mannerism.

She has to stand next to him, bowing slightly at all times, and pick food he wants to eat.

"How will I know?" She asked.

"He will look at it."

And she has to make sure to fill the jade plate with a tiny portion of each, so he will have a combination of food to choose from.

So next morning Sakura washed and dressed just as the sun came up, and ate a small bowl of congee for breakfast and rushed to the main court, where the plates were already arranged. All breakfast foods, but all colourful and nutritious. Some of them smells delicious and lovely, containing things Sakura have never tasted before.

She asked the kitchen servant girl, "what is this plate of dark berries in the middle?"

The girl was more than happy to explain, "these are called mountain berries. They were picked last year at the earliest sign of fall, deep fried of their moisture, and pickled in a mixture of salt and spices. After that they are sealed within a clay pot filled with white wine and buried under the ground for a whole year, taken out and placed on top of a layer of crunchy mixed but shavings..."

Sakura is practically drooling, "all these work in preparation for one dish? Aren't there any simple dishes like eggs?"

The girl pointed to the other plate which looks like a golden rose flower, "that's eggs!"

"What?" Sakura was surprised.

"Those are eggs mixed with fish roe, stir fried in a large pan, then lined with various thin slices of vegetables soaked in salt water, and cut into strips and rolled into roses."

"My god." Sakura was more amazed than ever. What happens to the left over food that the master doesn't eat?"

"The master is a kind and gentle being. We usually share them among the staff with his permission."

By this point Sasuke was on his way, so everyone stayed in position and awaits for his arrival.

He first looked around the room, then sat down.

The servants quickly motioned for Sakura to walk up. She did, and carefully observed Sasuke to see what he wants to eat. He showed no sign of wanting to eat anything. Maybe it's too early in the morning to tell, but he looked blank and uninterested in the food in front of him.

Sakura thought she can't do nothing, so she picked up a jade plate and carefully picked out five small portions of eggs, berries, pickled vegetables, salted meat, and a strange looking sauce. She then poured a small amount of milk porridge into a bowl and carefully placed them in front of him. Those are the ones she wants to eat the most.

The servants are silently moving their faces signaling Sakura to add more variety into the plate, but Sakura misinterpreted their hint and thought they wanted her to introduce the food. She congratulated herself in talking with the kitchen servant girl before.

"This is milk porridge." Sakura said with excitement.

The servants wanted to knelt down and beg for death. They pray to god the master doesn't think she's intruding, apparently talking during meals are s huge taboo. Especially with people of different societal ranking.

Luckily Sasuke took no notice and didn't blame anyone. He lifted his hand and took a small silver spoon and started eating the porridge.

Fresh milk is especially rare in these times, when there aren't fridges available. Sakura haven't drank any milk for the longest time, and she wanted to stare at the food some more but she can't, so she stood beside him and serving him as best as she could.

Sasuke finished the milk porridge and ate a bit of each on the plate, then waited for her to bring more variety.

She quickly brought more this time, but arranging them according to color. She said to him quietly, "I heard the human body can maximize its efficiency with at least 20 different types of food everyday."

Sasuke made a "mhmm" noise, and ate everything on the plate.

The servants were sweating profusely due to fear, but are now a bit more relaxed.

After breakfast, Sasuke said, "serve me st my bedside tonight."

Sakura understood, he doesn't mean that he wants to sleep with her. He just means he wants her to serve him so he'll have a good night's sleep."

"Yes, Master." Sakura said, quietly sighing.

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A/N: I'm running out of saved up chapters. Days just fly by so fast :(


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Sakura got what seemingly to be the best job in the world, while only she herself knows the pain.

This person is so high up in a position where everyone has to serve him, he even sleeps spoiled.

Sakura has to stay within his chambers, make sure everything is organized, oils and scents are properly lit, sheets are freshly changed, and water to be hot at any moment that he comes. Which means every time the water gets cold, in about 30 minutes, she has to go and reheat a pot of fresh new water and prepare a large bowl of fresh new hot water with herbs. Worst of all, she has to stay up most of the night to watch over him. Just in case he wants some water, she has to be there to offer whatever he needs.

The first day when Sakura undressed him and helped him to bed, he fell asleep almost immediately from the tiring day. Until about half an hour later when he was muttering in his sleep, reaching his hands out for something. Sakura quickly reached over to tuck his sheets in, and he felt her hand in his palms and didn't let go for the entire night.

She sat there, almost dozing off and falling on his face. When morning comes she quickly pulled away just before he wakes up.

So this went on.

Unfortunately Sakura goes hungry quickly at night when she's up. So several times her stomach rumbles loudly, and she was so afraid it would wake Sasuke up, but her meal times are fixed and she can't eat anything before bedtime. It's a very troubling problem for her.

Until Sasuke start ordering two shares of the bedtime snack. So Sakura gets to eat a couple small dishes before she helps him to bed. Her stomach doesn't rumble much anymore.

He also ordered a small cot for her beside his bed. So she doesn't fall down to the floor when she dozes off, which happened before, and she cried painfully in silence for about a minute.

She learnt to listen for a evenness of breathing from the Prince to check if he's asleep. Today she didn't hear anything. She looked over and saw him looking at her with the most gentle eyes.

It's hard to imagine these same eyes were as cold as ice when they order executions and punishments.

She smiled softly, "is there anything I can do for you?"

He said, "come here."

She edged closer.

He asked her teasingly, "do you grab onto my hand at night to get my attention or do it because you like me?"

Sakura doesn't know how to reply. She can't say it's because you kept on mumbling and grabbing onto air. It's annoying and the servants standing outside are very agitated every time you make a move.

So she bowed her head down and said,"I... I really admire the Prince..."

Sasuke is satisfied. He extended his hand and said, "here."

Sakura looked at it, puzzled.

"You may hold me hand." He said, as if it's the most generous thing he has ever said. Which to him, it probably is.

Sakura had no choice but to hold onto his hand while turning tomato red.

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The manor is having some Court guests coming the next day. As usual, Sakura slept most of the morning due to her serving the Prince at night. When she woke up, it was already noon.

She walked around to the courtyard and saw some familiar faces performing dances on stage. These are sometimes servant girls who helps around the kitchen or laundry, but they're actually dancers owned by the house, and they sometimes practice their routine in another wing of the courtyard. Sakura has never seen them but found them to be pleasantly nice.

One of the girls was wearing a green dress saw Sakura and smiled and walked over to her. She was older and tend to be less manipulative than other concubines. These dancers have no hope of sleeping with the Prince, so they're just waiting for their age to be at around 20, when they can afford to save up and leave the house and marry someone nice. Apparently after 20 you can't really dance well anymore.

The girls are materials to these court men. When they're dancing, if a man wants to touch them or sleep with them, they could. In fact, they're being kept in the house for that exact reason.

Sakura find this repulsive, but the girls are so used to it they don't think it's abnormal.

The girl in green dress's name is Tenten. She just finished a dance in front of these men, and she quickly jumped off the stage to rest for the next one. She walked over to Sakura because Sakura seem to be holding a basket of delicious meat buns. Usually they share good food with each other if they're able.

Tenten's dance outfit was elaborate and pretty. It is made entirely out from lace and mesh, and with sashes that runs long past the normal length, to have the wavy ribbon like effect when she dances. One of the other soldiers weren't looking as they stepped onto Tenten's sash, and her forced lunged forward caused a back pull, destroying her balance and sending her into the koi pond.

The pond isn't particularly deep but it's pretty wide and muddy at the bottom. Once she fell, she stirred up all the mud within and begin panicking. Other dancers stopped dancing and starts to panic too, and the court officials were gathering around the pond to see what's going on.

Sakura stared as none of them went down to help her, and she then found out because none of them knew how to swim.

It makes sense, the capital is far away from the sea.

So she looked around, grabbing onto a large wooden decorative carved branch quickly got in.

She didn't jump in like some hero, because she knew the pond isn't deep and she might break her next before she has the chance to save anyone. So she carefully got in under the help of some soldiers, and then swam calmly towards Tenten while tossing her branch.

Tenten wanted to grab onto Sakura, but Sakura dodged and dived and repeatedly yell, "don't grab onto me! Don't touch me! Grab onto this branch! I'll swim back! Trust me!"

Finally Tenten grabbed onto the branch, and begin to calm down a little, but continuously cough up swallowed water. Sakura swam back and under the help of several servants, they all got back up safely.

Sasuke observed the whole situation in his chair, which wasn't that far away. When he saw Sakura coming up from the pond soaking wet, his eyes narrowed and focused on her body.

He doesn't know why, but he has never wanted anyone as badly as he wants her right st this moment.

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A/N: Remember to review! More review more chapters!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Sakura was shivering in a sheet someone brought when Sasuke walked over and grabbed on her wrist.

She stared and followed as he pulled her out from the crowd, and everyone fell silent as they watched the Prince pulled her to his bed chambers and shut the door behind them with a loud bang.

Every knew what he was about to do and they think that girl is the luckiest girl in the world.

Sakura was completely dazed from everything just now, but when he saw Sasuke begin to take his clothes off, she understood.

Sasuke is impatient. He has been wanting to sleep with her for a while, but he never realized how much. He only cared about his own amusement and didn't give her much thought about it until today, her clothes were soaking wet and clinging onto her curves.

Even when turned on, he looked calm and intimidating.

Sakura first tried to stop him, "Royal Highness, please don't.."

He didn't listen. Of course he doesn't, he imagined every women who says that in bed meant the actual opposite.

Sakura honestly doesn't really want to be fucked in front of everyone. They're not watching, but they saw what he did and knows exactly what's about to happen. They're outside in the courtyard eating and drinking while listening to a girl being raped by a Prince.

Her feminist side came out and she pushed against him, "please, I don't want to-"

He ignored her and took off her wrap.

Then Sakura panicked, she raised her hand, and slapped him across the face.

Both he and Sakura were stunned.

He cannot believe that, the first time he was slapped in his life, it's by a concubine.

She cannot believe that the first time she slapped someone, it's a Prince.

It wasn't a hard slap, nor does it hurt. But the sound it made was loud and could be heard by everyone.

He stopped what he was doing and frowned.

"You've gone over my limit." He said, smoldering eyes staring down at Sakura.

Sakura shivered. "I.. I... what..."

Soon soldiers came into the chamber to inquire if there were any danger. They saw a shivering Sakura kneeling on the ground and a fuming Prince.

Sasuke raised his hand. Originally he wanted to have her beaten due to her outrageous disobedience, but he then changed his mind and said, "lock her in the wood shed. Teach her a lesson."

So Sakura was shoved into a wooden cabinet full of firewood. It wasn't particularly cozy because there were no place to lie down, and her clothes were still wet. But some of the servants who were nice to her give her a bowl of soup and a few dried sheets to sleep in. Apparently she's going to be here for a while.

The party ended on an unhappy note. Since the Prince was not happy, nobody else dare to smile.

Sasuke was going over these few days in his head, and decided that he has been too kind to her, and he spoilt her. He give her preferential treatment because he likes how she behaves, and now she's climbing over his head.

He was certain that she has been pulling a long con of getting him to sleep with her. As with practically every eligible female in this country.

It wasn't until as the rest of the day went on he realized how he was used to her presence. When she stood next to him, she knew exactly where to put his tea, how to flip his pages so the book doesn't crease, and where to put his afternoon tea so when she stirs it the hot steam doesn't affect him.

It's the little things she learnt over these days that makes her comfortable to be with. She knew him and observed him with her heart, and memorized his habits. He concluded she must have been so much in love with him that she was delirious from happiness, which resulted in today.

He doesn't know it's more out of fear.

But the new girl they called in to replace her was doing everything wrong, and he can't be bothered to correct her, so he gets and for no reason and yelled at her to get out of his sight and never come back again.

As the day went on he got madder and madder. Eventually he thinks Sakura might not learn her lesson alone in the woodshed. So he called on the butler to lecture her.

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Sakura was falling asleep uncomfortably as sunset came when she was woken up by the butler. The butler came with a scroll from "Discipline of a Good Woman" and begin to lecture her and yell at her for her faults.

"You shall not refuse your husband if he wants to have his way... you have performed insane acts that ruined your reputation..."

Sakura understood as she was properly kneeling and listening, she was being yelled at. By him. Only he couldn't be bothered to do it in person so he has someone to do the yelling for him.

She listened to each word with humiliation, and when he was done, he rolled up the scrolls and said, "you may thank the prince for his wisdom and generosity."

Sakura bit her lips and swallowed her pride, "thank you." She knelt down and forced to place her head to the floor.

The butler walked with with soldiers in satisfaction.

Sakura hugged herself and cried herself to sleep on an empty stomach.

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A/N: just remember forgot to update today. 0..0


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The next day, Sasuke woke up feeling unhappy, due to Sakura's not sleeping by the cot next to him at night. He feels like something is missing, resulting in a passive temper tantrum that has everyone in a fright this morning.

As he was eating breakfast he was contemplating on whether or not to call Sakura up and yell at her some more today, news came that the Emperor is announcing an informal visit to Uchiha Manor immediately.

Sasuke was immediately distracted and changed to a more formal robe before going to the front gate to welcome his brother.

Even though Itachi is the Emperor, he still cares about his twin brother very much, and dotes on him constantly. Occasionally he leaves the busy political business alone and visits his brother in his home. This is one of those times.

The Emperor, while dressed in plain clothing, still has embroidered bright golden silk lines on his robe. This color is the color of royalty, and only the Emperor can wear it. The rest are simply wearing some variation to this color. If anyone was caught with this color, the fault is contempt of court and punishment is execution.

Sasuke knelt on the ground and waited for his brother's arrival. When Itachi entered, everyone knelt down deeply down onto the ground, and Itachi took no notice except to help Sasuke up.

"Brother." Itachi addressed, and quickly waved away the formalities, "lets go to the courtyard."

Sasuke nodded and followed closely behind him.

The courtyard was already ready for guests. As it is very hot in the summer, huge blocks of ice were taken from underground basement and placed next to the chairs. Temporary tables and curtains were placed with delicate little afternoon snacks and tea. Both men sat right in the center across from one another, and begin playing chess while talking and enjoying the snacks.

Itachi begin, "Jiraya-sama outrightly accused Orochimaru-sama's involvement in embezzlement of charity funds today."

"Interesting." Sasuke replied boredly, "I'll be surprised if one day they actually got along peacefully. What did Orochimaru say?"

Itachi pondered for a while and reply, "I don't think he denied it. Instead he listed all the refugees that were alive because of him."

"You should make him donate half of his savings to the refugees. Don't you think it'll just kill him?"

"I think it'll kill me. Imagine finding out a court subject has hidden more funds in his house than the bank of our country."

"Hahahaha..."

Meanwhile, Sakura is curled up in that wood shed, and she heard a whisper coming from the windows.

The window is made up of bars, there's only one small window up above, and Sakura's face could barely reach it. She stood up and saw Tenten's friendly face and her hand extended out with meat buns.

"You saved my life, the least I could do is to sneak you some food!" Tenten said.

Sakura was too busy to cry because she was wolfing down food. She had to drink water from Tenten's hand because the bars were too thick to fit through a bowl.

Then Tenten begin, "I don't exactly know what happened, but did you really hit the master?"

Sakura finished gulping her latest mouthful of food before saying with agitation, "I didn't mean to. But the whole thing went down differently than I expected. I don't know what's going on with our master, suddenly he dragged me into his chamber in front of everyone. I was utterly humiliated! He's going to do.. that.. to me, in front of everyone! Can you hunk if anything more degrading than that?"

Tenten smiled bitterly, "dancing in front of court officials and open my legs in front of them whenever they declare it?"

Sakura sobbed, "I.. I'm..."

"I know this isn't some kind of comfort," Tenten sighed, "but at your age, you're kind of lucky, in a way. You're officially his concubine which means other people can't touch you if he doesn't allow them. I'm already ruined.. I've past my life of a naive young little girl hoping to marry off well. All I want to do is to wait until I'm older and can't dance anymore, then the manor will have to buy new girls to replace us, and I'll marry a farmer who works hard and treats me well...life is hard, Sakura-chan. It always was for us. We need to make the best of it. You shouldn't have slapped him, poor dear.."

Sakura could only sob some more, "I.. I can't take it.."

Tenten comforted her some more before leaving. Sakura stood in the shed alone, and for once in her life. She decided to stand up against her fate and make some thing of herself. She decided to take control of her own destiny by-escaping.

And so she did.

She first took off her sash and fold it into a arm length strong band, then she begin to wrap the band on the door handle on one end, and the other on a piece of fire wood, and start to turn the firewood until the band became so tight with twists. Then she tried kicking the door, it became a bit loose. She she twisted with all her might and kicked as hard as she could, and the door opened with a loud bang sound.

But not so loud that people could hear it and come rushing over. Sakura quickly closed the door behind her, and made sure to cover her tracks, and walked nonchalantly away. She first hid behind a rock in the gardens to do her hair neatly, then splashed some pond water on her face and wiped herself clean. Then she turned her clothes inside out so the better clean side shoes, and she walked on.

She was fairly successful at first, when some people don't recognize her nodded and walked on. They were so busy themselves serving the Emperor and the Prince that they don't have time to do dilly dally, and the entire atmosphere was filled with busyness and tension. Sakura noticed it too, and she tried to make her way towards the front gate. To do that she has to go through the kitchen.

The kitchen is busier than ever. She sees a lot of people hustling around, and suddenly she saw a familiar figure. Riku-san, who was holding a tray of food, was standing in front.

Sakura quickly took a quick left turn and walked down a quiet narrow pathway through the gardens.

Two soldiers came by and saw Sakura. One of them was suspicious, "what are you doing?" He asked.

Sakura replied with confidence, "I'm going to get tea for the guests."

The soldiers nodded and let her through.

Then suddenly the other soldiers remembered and turned, "but the tea was already served, the master was just ordering some more crispy desserts just now."

Sakura went pale, and she ran.

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A/N: sorry for the late update! More reviews will make me so happy and write more!


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Sasuke and Itachi were talking riddles around one another, just like any other time they had any other conversation. Both knew exactly what the other mean, but neither say them aloud by poking through the the thinly veiled metaphors.

Sasuke, his whole life, is playing the role of a good-for-nothing brother of the probably best Emperor that has ever existed in history. Itachi certainly dotes him and giving him the most honorable title available and the best piece of land in this Capital city, where a single inch is of estate would probably worth more than an inch of gold, and as many vacations as possible. It's entire Sasuke's prerogative whether or not he attends the daily court meetings, which is mandatory of all court subjects. Whenever he attends, which is rare, he never speaks unless he absolutely has to. He shows no interest in politics and only in hobbies. He knew that's exactly what Itachi and their mother wanted. A bother that has the same rights to the throne but has no interest or the ability to take over, and is loyal to the Emperor in every way. If one day he has actually do a feat that make the people adore him like solving the refugee crisis, his head would be on a pike pretty soon.

That's the way of life in royal court. He knew Itachi knew, and Itachi knew he knew. They both knew, and somehow, Itachi felt a nostalgic regret that washes over him whenever they talk. Itachi knew this seat could have easily been Sasuke's, and yet he genuine shows no interest. He knew Sasuke has no intention of taking it over, but to act over the top as a debauchery Royal Prince who does nothing but drinks and eat fine meals all day on purpose is an insult to Sasuke's dignity in some way. Sasuke shows prominent talent in leading an army and war politics, but that's too risky of a sword to hand to him. Imagine a country that's built on empty court and the power of the army is handed over to someone else other than the Emperor... That's how new eras and new dynasties begin.

So while these two sphinxes were conversing, Sakura was running.

She was running large steps, in her uncomfortable shoes and restraining robes, full speed ahead. She doesn't care where she ends up, she just knew she had to run, and she's risking everything for it.

The problem is, she's neither a good runner nor does she have a good sense of direction. Soon she ran to the court yard where Sasuke and Itachi were sitting. The difference is, she's running across one end of the pond and those two were sitting on the other side.

Both heard the rackus and they saw a girl wearing purple robes ran into the courtyard, followed by three guards, and soon she was caught and pinned down by guards, then was taken away after tying her limbs together. Itachi can't see too clearly because it's so far away. Nevertheless, it's a disturbance, and all who disturbs the Emperor suffers the same fate of death.

Itachi was in a good mood today, so he didn't get mad. In fact, he seldom ever gets mad. If anyone offends him, it's usually up to his close personal servants who observes him and carries out the order. Itachi remains forever emotionless when serious and when he doesn't contradict the order, it means it shall be carried out. But the order never actually came from his lips, so plausible deniability was there.

The butler came up, remaining as calm as possible and said to Sasuke quietly, "The girl who was locked inside the wood shed escaped. We'll tie her up and await for further instructions."

The scene was back to peace and sunlight, as if the running and typing up never happened.

Sasuke sat there, expression as placid as ever, and said to Itachi, "Pardon me. A slave escaped, that's all."

Itachi suddenly wanted to tease him, "Just a slave? Why not get rid of her?"

Sasuke looked at Itachi in a way that shows he's done with the conversation and retorted with full fire, "What about that cold body you've kept in Jade Palace all these years?"

Here's an interesting fact. The Emperor, like his predecessors, has a few consorts and an Empress in his court. After all these years, neither of them has ever produced a heir for the throne, ever. Not only is that so relevant to the fate of this country, here's the kicker, the Emperor has always been, and will ever be, in love with someone else other than the women in his court.

Apparently, just after the Emperor ascended the throne, he was in an accident and was almost drowned. He was saved, however, by this girl. This girl was about to be married into the court and have the highest status available (other than the Empress) when she suddenly descended into a comatose status and has never regained conscious since. She's still alive, of course, but she's not moving and is forever sleeping. In order to wake her up, every previous herb and medicine was fed to her, and she never did. She just kept on sleeping there, and the Emperor frequently visits her and talk to her and watch over her wellbeing, making sure she's alive and well (as well as a comatose patient could be), and adorn her with the most beautiful jewelry and lavish fabric, and sent a team of royal doctors to take care of her round the clock.

This lasted many years, up until today, she never woke up. Itachi simply doesn't care, and thus never bedded any of his consorts, therefore there weren't any offsprings.

This worries the court somewhat, but nobody can say no to the Emperor, so whatever he does, goes.

Sasuke hit a nerve. Itachi frowned slightly and stood up, "I since I've overstayed my welcome, dear brother. If you need anything, let me know."

Sasuke was waiting for him to say that. He quickly stood up and said, "I'll walk you past the gates. Stay safe."

Sasuke was never a patient person.

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A/N: I'm so sorry for the late update.. In fact I've been saying this phrase in my ANs more than any other.. I'll try. Seriously, I will.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

After the Emperor is gone, Sasuke turned and walked back to the main court of his manor, and sat right in the middle. He waited, and soon Sakura was brought up to him.

Sakura, in this life, is not the type of girl that men would go crazy for. She has a round and lovable face, a medium built body and full bosom, with large eyes and shiny black hair. She looks like the girl that all mothers would want their sons to marry. She's very comfortable looking, and Sasuke knew it too. He has seen women who are extremely beautiful to the point of surreal, and he dislike them. One would suppose his taste would be similar to a rich guy who ate too much caviar and suddenly crave market scrap fish soup.

Sakura knew she was going to die, or be close to it. She doesn't really bother with much anymore. She stood tall and refuse to kneel down. Her hair is all messy and clothing are dirty. She stared at Sasuke with hatred and frustration, and said straight to him, "What is it that you want? Just do it and get it over with."

Sasuke first stared down at her while drinking pear and birds' nest soup, and then he continued to dine on various snacks in front of him, as if looking at a joke. He then smiled.

Everyone is almost scared to death. That's a sarcastic smile. They knew. They have seldom seen it and they're afraid blood in inevitable tonight.

Time went on, and eventually an hour passed and Sakura felt like passing out, when she heard the familial crying and yelling.

She quickly turned around, and saw her whole family-including the servants and the children, are lined up in a row, all tied up in a ball shape with their knees to the ground kneeling down. Not only that, Tenten and her roommate Sadako are also tied up at the back, crying.

Her father was voiceless, but her stepmother was screaming as if her life depends on it, "What did we ever do to house such a ungrateful evil child? You dare to defy the Royal Prince? You're bringing punishment down to your whole family and now we all have to suffer for it! your nine years old sister will die and her blood will be on your hands! You ungrateful bitch..."

And it goes on.

Most servants who watched hoped to god that this woman would shut up. She's certainly the one who dies first if she kept on screaming like that.

Sakura stared incredulously, and soon she was horrified with a group of guards marching in with huge wooden paddles and start wacking everyone whether they're children or not. Each guard is in charge of two people, and with each wack, they eventually lie down on the ground and blood start splattering everywhere. As soon as the wacking starts, her step mother's cursing turned into pitiful screams, and more yelling chimed in, some of them are from her younger sisters.

Sasuke watched the whole scene while eating a piece of watermelon.

Sakura suddenly snapped back to reality, and she quickly knelt down and yelled to Sasuke, "Prince, please, please, I was at fault, I take full responsibility. I'm the one who should be punished, please just kill me, please, please stop this..."

She honestly cannot stand abuse in any form, especially being pampered and sheltered in her previous life where she has never even seen animals been abused, she literally was scared out of her mind. She begged and begged while crying, "Please don't kill them, please, I'll do anything, anything..."

As if that's not enough, she crawled to his feet and grabbed onto his robe, "Please, let them live.. please... I'll do anything you ask, my life is yours, I belong to you..."

This is incredibly nice to hear. Sasuke took a moment to craft what he's about to say, which is something very clever and moving, and he bend down to face her crying face, only to find she suddenly fainted.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Sakura woke up startled, and found she's not in her room. Neither was she in her wooden shed. Instead she's in a rather nice room with clean sheets and clean clothing and a warm hearth underneath the stone bed, making everything nice and hot.

She saw the Prince sitting next to her, putting down his book to look at her.

Sakura quickly remembered what happened and asked, "Your Royal Highness.. Are those people.. Those.. are they still alive?"

Sasuke stared down at her and wants to strangle her himself.

Not only did she ruin the big dramatic speech he has in store for her and eventually will end with making it clear that her life and everyone she knows' life belongs at the tip of his finger, he wants her to know that everything she does will reflect back on her family. Just because he has that power and doesn't abuse it often doesn't mean he can't use it. He thinks he's being too kind to her these days and she needs a lesson to toughen up. Sakura fainted before he could say anything, and ended up in a slight panic while ordering for doctors from the Royal Court to have a look at her.

And it turns out it's just dehydration and exhaustion. Nothing a good rest can't salvage.

When he heard the diagnoses, he wanted to pour a bucket of cold water over her and make sure she wakes up to face him. Upon looking at her tired face and dirty clothing, he ordered some servants to take care of her and place her in a comfortable setting to maximize recovery. After all that, he made sure he stood right beside her and he's the first person she sees when she wakes up, and all she could think about is her family? The audacity! She should be begging and lavishly praising him for his kindness and generosity!

In his twisted way, he was fumed. "Is that all you could say?"

Sakura quickly realized something, and said, "Please, punish me, kill me instead of them!"

Honestly speaking she thinks she'll just waltz back to 21st century if she dies. The only reason she haven't done it herself is because she's a coward against her own mortality.

Sasuke stared at her, and the feeling of strangling her came back.

After a while, he finally said, "What did you mean, when you wrapped your hair around my fingers?"

It took Sakura a few seconds before she could understand what he was referring to, and she said, "It's just.. I... um.. a long time ago, I felt like I've known you all my life..."

This made him smile in a way that would've made her heart melt if she wasn't worried for her life, "As in, fate? Previously designed?"

Sakura suddenly blushed a thousand shade of red. She knew what he's referring to. In this era, if a relationship is successful, it's been referred to as something that was meant to be in their previous life. They're just finding each other again in this life. People say superstitious things like this all the time, and Sakura sometimes shakes her head at the notion. Obviously whatever happens after happily ever after eludes these romantic sayings.

Sasuke felt like he's done teasing her. He straightened up and said, "your family is fine. Everyone's waiting to see you at the North Wing, where they'll be staying for the night. You certainly give them a fright this morning."

As if everything was her fault.

But at this point Sakura would never pull anything past Sasuke. She accepted his blame with humility and said something along the line of this will never happen again, your grace knows no bounds, and I will forever be indebted to you. Stuff he wants to hear, obviously.

So Sasuke left, feeling pretty happy.

Sakura quickly jumped off the warm bed and ran to the North Wing.

The North Wing is dedicated to guests traditionally. Sakura felt it was weird placing her family who were being punished into the guest houses, but she wasn't one to judge and she wants to see if anyone died.

Her father was outside to greet her. He has been waiting for a while.

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A/N: UPDATE DAILY FTW! REVIEW!


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Haruno-san was truly puzzled by the whole situation. When he was dragged out of the comfort of his home along with every living being in his household to the Royal Manor, he thought he was a dead guy for sure. He was afraid of Yatsumoto, the insignificant general, and imagine his fear for the Royal Prince.

He was ready to say goodbye to all that's good in his life, when suddenly the storm passed and everyone was untied and being treated by doctors and bandaged up, and sent to very nice guesthouses. They also fed them very elaborate foods and make sure they're full and well rested until Riku-san, the elderly servant, informed him that Sakura's coming to see him.

He waited outside for her when his wives and children stayed inside to marvel at the expensive fabrics of the Uchihas Royal Manor.

"Father." Sakura asked, "Did anyone die?"

Haruno-san quickly shook his head, "Everyone's alive and well. Minor injuries. Skin abrasions and such."

Sakura let out a breath of relief.

"What happened?" Haruno-san asked her, "What caused all this?"

She doesn't want to tell him the real reason because he would not hesitate to strip her naked and send her to the Prince's bed in a heartbeat.

So she vaguely said something along the lines of, "The Prince's temper. Who knows, I don't know how I've offended him, it's probably one of this quirky things royalties have."

Haruno didn't buy it, but he didn't get a chance to press further because his wife came out yelling and cursing at Sakura, "What the hell did this child do? she's going to get all of us killed!"

Sakura ignored her and asked her father, "have you been fed?"

"Yes." Haruno-san automatically ignored his wife too, "We ate things we've never even heard of before. The things they feed to royalties. What a wonder! Who knew eggplants could be prepared 20 steps!"

Riku-san stepped in admist all of the crowd and said, "The Prince has ordered the Haruno family to be sent off tomorrow morning after a good night's rest. Sakura-san."

Sakura was puzzled. The Prince is literally treating her family with harsh punishments and then reward them with candy later on. Isn't this method used on Pavlov's dogs?

Riku-san continued with cryptic messages hidden inside, "Sakura-san, don't worry. The Prince said your family would be well taken care of."

And then everyone understood.

Quickly her step mother grabbed onto Sakura's hand and said, "Sakura, I cannot believe, in my entire life and being of existence, that anyone, anyone in my family would have this honour. You made sure you treat the Prince with utmost respect, you make damn sure he's comfortable every single second you're with him. Do you hear me?"

Haruno-san pushed her aside and said with extreme caution, "just pray things are meant to be. Be careful and don't make the same mistake again."

Sakura stared at them, and quickly said goodbye to them.

She then went to visit Sadaku and Tenten, and making sure they're all well before returning to her own room, only to be told that the Prince is waiting for her in his room.

She quickly rushed over, and everything was already dark. The Prince already was on his bed with curtains down. She climbed onto her little cot and whispered, "Is there anything your Highness need?"

Sasuke thought for a moment before mentioning, "I got a message from the Emperor, and he asked me to go to the country border, where Suna resides. The trip may take a while. Are you willing to come with me?"

Sakura immediately replied, "I'll go anywhere you need me to."

Sasuke smiled in the dark, and then quickly straightened his face and reached out a hand, "You have my permission."

Sakura was puzzled, "Huh?"

"I know your secret." Sasuke said, as if revealing something big, "you like to hold my hand when you're asleep. Otherwise you can't get a good night's sleep. I already know this. Come on."

Sakura honestly doesn't know what she's feeling at this point. She numbly moved the cot closer and held onto his hand. "Thank you... for blessing me with your... hand."

Sasuke fell asleep feeling pretty generous.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

The next day, even before the sun rose, everyone was already getting ready for the long journey ahead. When Sakura woke up, Sasuke was already gone. She was too exhausted from what happened before that she slept past her duties of waking up along side the Prince and help him dress etc.

Sasuke was in his weapons hall, debating which weapon to take along with him.

She quickly rushed back to her room and packed the few necessities she needed. Then she rushed to the main hall to get some breakfast.

Tenten was there, saving her a seat. "Are you coming with us?" Sakura asked her while munching down some buns.

Tenten nodded, "I have so, so does my team of dancers. I think we're going to perform in Suna."

"You don't look very happy." Sakura observed.

Tenten sighed, "That's because... Maybe you don't know, but Suna has been rumored to be a place of desert. There's nothing there that's fun, and the city isn't as rich as the Capital. Everyone's struggling to meet their means, there's no way I'd enjoy being there. Also, they have different customs and practices as people here in Mainland. I hear men actually wear animal furs and tooth as decorations."

Sakura wondered for a while before commenting, "are you worried they might not be as gentle as the people here in Capital?"

"Sort of. Safety issues and such. Also, what if I end up being traded... I'll have to stay there forever."

"What do you mean? Traded?"

"You don't know? The Master is able to trade any dancer he brings with the women over there. Traditionally trading of girls is done to establish trust among officials of visiting city and home city..."

Sakura stared, "Trading as in, trading humans?"

"Yes..."

"Oh my god!" Sakura exclaimed. "Is this the reason you're going?"

"Most likely." Tenten sighed, but then felt relief after a few seconds. "I've given it a lot of thought yesterday. I almost died, and now I'm still alive. I'm going to live everyday to the fullest and be happy. If I get traded then so be it. I'll try my best to adapt to Suna's culture and customs. Besides, as long as I live, nothing else matters..."

Sakura didn't comment. Instead she picked up another meat bun and munched it down. The will to escape this place became stronger.

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A/N: Hurray for stored back up chapters!


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

She has no idea the amount of effort it takes to pack up several carriages worth of stuff for a trip to another city. Not to mention hundreds of soldiers lined up front and back to protect the Royal Prince and his travel companions. He only took two maids, the butler, several servants and a team of dancers. Still the group traveled on as if they're in a parade, mainly due to the amount of soldiers present. This trip Sasuke brought 50 of his finest soldiers with him.

The trip was long and tedious. Sasuke is used to travelling like this, but Sakura isn't. She isn't used to the carriage and the bumpy road, despite how easy she has it, being in the soft cushion filled carriage cabin.

Luckily traveling was meticulously planned and well spaced out for them. They ride on for four hours. Stop for lunch, then ride on again for six, just until the next small town or city, and have dinner, then rest.

Sakura got carriage sick, and she was puking until she absolutely have nothing left to puke except for the stomach acid.

Sasuke was torn between slowing down or getting there as fast as possible. Sakura tried very hard not to hinder the progress, but unfortunately it was inevitable.

It took them almost over two weeks to arrive at Suna, and as soon as they got here, Sakura understood what it meant when the dancer girls showed their disdain for this place.

If the capital is comparable to a place of luxury and debauchery, then this place is somewhere the savages lived. This is not an exaggeration, rather a literal description, due to various different types of people dressed in fur and ragged clothes, or soldiers in full but old armor. The entire city was built upon the deserts, and upon the first look, Sakura thought that they were sand dunes, houses built from sand-clay mixture. But when she looked closely, they were action made from incredible hard bricks that are sand-colored.

The center city court resides the leader of Suna city and his young sons and daughter. All dressed in battle armor. Their armor were in different style, but one constant remains, they are old and ragged.

Sakura and others was sure this whole thing was extremely awkward, but Sasuke didn't bat an eye when he approached and exchanged greeting with Lord Rasa, and sat on the best seat within the whole room. Sakura stood numbly behind him, making sure he's comfortable.

A lot of political mumble jumble ensued. Sasuke asked Rasa how everything was, and Lord Rasa replied in cryptic and satirical and polite words that hinting they need more funding, and Sakura cleverly avoided his remarks and mention the Emperor's regards and his plans to help.

Part ways through the conversation, the mood changes as Lord Rasa begin to give a detailed description of the invasion. He mentioned the map that lies on the huge table right int he middle and everyone who is important stood up to go look at it. The map details important dates, borders and plans. Sasuke studied it and discussed for about two hours.

"In conclusion." Lord Rasa begin, "We are protected by the thick wall that surrounds the border. Unfortunately I can't say the same for other cities east and west of us. They rely on our victory to defeat the Oto. Unfortunately. As you know..."

He trailed off. Everyone in the room understands his concern.

Originally the Fire nation and Suna nation are separate entity, perhaps seventy years ago. Then the current Emperor's great-great grandfather conquered the conquered three nations together, with the understanding that each individual family will govern their own land under the supervision of the Capital. Fire, Sand, and Water. They are now the alliance of the strongest and largest nation right now. However minor nations have been invading on their territories non-stop, due to various different demands of resources and expansion, many cities that are on the border edge have been affected. Refugee tolls are on the rise, and it has gotten to a point where these invasions has been a nuisance. The Emperor finally sent his twin brother to the north side and find out exactly what was going on, and also to get rid of any disturbance.

The Sand nation are a proud and powerful people. They are able to fend off any invasions with no major losses. However, in the past three year or so, the Sound nation has a new leader that just came to the position after the elderly Oto Lord died, and the Sound nation has been more aggressive than ever. At a young age, the young Oto Lord was a prodigy. He developed a skill that can penetrate through air and reach three miles radius and detect any living beings. Using this technique and Oto's unique sound-wave battling skills, various Suna soldiers have been sacrificed. Suna's reliance of puppetry have always gave them an edge in battle. Suffice to say when Sound nation attacked, they have met their match.

Sakura sort of understand the situation now.

Everyone was discussing ideas and strategies while Sakura looked out the window, and saw the large wall that stood strong and tall to protect this city. This reminded her of a trip when she was young and travelled to the Great Wall. It too, was magnificent for the first few miles or so. After that the wall was ruined and wasted away, with no one bothered to fix them. She remembered climbing up each step and calculating the bricks and marveled at the skill.

The Great Wall was built thousands of years ago, and yet it still stands—in tact.

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A/N: I was gone so long and I sincerely apologize. I suppose I should take off the update daily sign... :((( BTWs anyone saw the new Fantastic Beast teaser trailer today?


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Sasuke was drawing a blueprint of a weapon design when Sakura came in with fresh ginger tea.

"My Lord, please drink this." Sakura handed him the tea, "I prepared it just now, and added just a few drops of honey..."

The dynamic between them changes slightly with time. During their journey here Sakura puked and showed her ugliest self to him, and he didn't mind.

"Where did you find honey in this place?" Sasuke folded away his blueprints and looked warmly at Sakura. She's wearing a burgundy gown and a fur lined vest that ensures her warmth when night falls.

"I brought it with me." Sakura said happily. "Did you know that if proper stored, honey can be stored for a long, long, long time?"

"How long?"

"Forever."

Sasuke took the tea from her cup, and held onto her hand while looking deeply into her eyes, "How long is forever?"

Sakura looked back, startled, but unable to look away.

He has a magnetic pull around him, and proves to be extremely charming if he wants to be. His presence are often a sense of deep suppression and nerve wracking. However when he wants to, he can hide that part of him and release a tone of warmth around him.

It was so rare that Sakura thought she must've drank too much ginger tea, because when he looks at her, she could feel the deepest part of her are shone with scorching sunlight.

"For... Forever.. transcends time..." She stuttered, trailing off because she could feel his breath on her cheeks.

"Time?" He learned closer, towering her as he leaned down to look at her green eyes. It was the purest emerald color, and it reminded him of a small pet kitten he had when he was very young.

He raised his hand to touch her hair and weaved his fingers within her tresses.

Sakura's reason all crumbled against his touches, and she closed her eyes.

Unfortunately, there was a disturbance outside of Sasuke's large tent, and Sasuke lets go of her hair and walked out to the tent.

There was a spy that just came back heavily wounded with critical information on the Oto nation.

Sakura didn't open her eyes for a while.

She was an ordinary girl back in her previous life. She have had one or two boyfriends and it didn't exactly workout for her. She has read great loves in novels and wished for it. She's logical and smart, and she could tell that this could be the end of her if she did comply.

She has never jumped into things she wasn't sure before. Sasuke was a uncertainty. She doesn't know what he's thinking and couldn't dare to postulate his thoughts. She can't predict his mood, nor can she ensure her own safety. She has seen the cruelty and the softest part of him. She wondered if he's bipolar.

No, that can't be it. He has perfect control over every bit of emotion he displays. He is well aware of his temper when he kills, and he is well aware of his actions when he touches her. He knows everything, and it's terrifying.

When someone has that much power, rules don't apply to them. He has the ability to move mountains and change rivers. He can do anything he wanted, and he can't be constraint to the love of one little servant.

It's ridiculous. Truly.

Sakura thought about this, and slowly made up the determination to tuck away her heart and feelings, when she discovered the blueprint on the desk.

They're blueprints of a tank!

Or something that resembles a tank. A very primitive tank. In fact more like a slingshot that fires firepowder. However it was very crudely formed, and with heavy metal armors, and detailed notes on the bottom.

She was so astonished, because she didn't know tank existed during this time era. Did they skip a few steps and jumped right into guns and mass weapons?

Thinking of this, she quickly looked through the rest of the drafts, they are more or less variations of the tank, and it looks like the top one was the most refined one. The drawing of the primitive contains four super large wheels, higher than the tank itself, and a main core that have pulleys that pull back the slingshot.

This wouldn't do.

Sakura has seen the war films. The entire point of the tank is to enter enemy territory unharmed with heavy protection. She studied the tank for a while and took the brush and dipped it in ink, and begin to draw a bowl like structure that encompasses the tank except leaving one fifth of the wheels out. She drew a top for the tank too, and thought there must be a way to navigate it, and drew a steering wheel and wires...

As soon she finished she thought she did a fantastic job. This tank is definitely the stuff of innovation for the books. She'll go down in history as the first tank-designer—

Then the horrible realization dawned on her. She's supposed to stay quiet and stupid and keep herself safe.

She quickly crumpled up the paper.

Then she realized—no, that was his good copy, he will search for it, along with his notes.

Oh my god. She's quickly flattened out the crumpled sheet and begin to copy exactly what Sasuke did before, prior to her change in design.

Just as she was half way done and is now copying his writing, Sasuke walked in.

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A/N: Two chapters because I feel bad :(


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Sakura quickly dropped the brush and went to grab Sasuke's fur cape.

It was approaching dark and the temperature dropped drastically within minutes as the sun sets. The sand on the ground which experienced scorching heat has now turned to little icy pieces.

Sasuke didn't notice what she was doing. His eyes softened at her presence and he stood still to let her hung his cape and brush off the dust on his robes.

"There's going to be a feast tonight." Sasuke said to her, "I've sent a pigeon to the Capital asking for reinforcements."

"That's wise, my Lord." Sakura replied obediently. While silently praying he would wuyalk straight to his bed instead of his desk. She could feel her heart pounding louder and louder.

Sasuke thought for a moment before continuing, "It occurred to me, that the Oto-"

He stopped talking, because he saw the drawing on his desk.

Sasuke didn't speak at first. He observed the piece of paper, puzzled at first, then he saw the crumpled up paper, and picked it up and smoothed it out with his hand. His eyes widened from astonishment for a second before quickly reverting back to his usual cold gaze, all warmth gone from his entire body, and his voice was distant and sarcastic as he looked up slowly at Sakura, "Did you do this?"

Sakura opened her mouth before closing, for she doesn't know what to say and she feels powerless and foolish at the same time. She could only nod slightly.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, and hissed, "how?"

His voice wasn't particularly loud, but it carried so much weight that Sakura immediately knelt down onto the ground and quickly explained, "Royal Highness, When I was young, my father took my to various trips in and out of the nation, and I learnt to read many books and met a lot of scholars.. I know some distant languages, broken bits and pieces. As for this, I can assure you it's a image I saw from an ancient text, it's nothing of crucial importance. And.. and..."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow.

"I have always been curious about the sciences and design, like weaponry and machines. I've taken apart our horse carriage just to see how it moves, and I've made crude slingshots when I was young. My father spoilt me and let me have my hobbies.. which is why I have fallen behind in instruments, embroidery, painting and chess..."

For a mastery of any of the four important areas are considered perfection.

Sasuke did nothing except to look at her for almost three minutes. During these few minutes Sakura's heart pounded louder and louder, fearing for her life. Sasuke on the other hand, was looking at her in a brand new light. He has never met a female who is interested in these sort of things. In his impression females only separate into two categories. The first being girls who wants to sleep him and use him, and second is his mother. Almost every girl he has ever met wants to sleep with him, use him in someway, or a combination thereof.

"Stand up." He said.

Sakura did, her eyes watering.

"Come here." He told her.

She walked over next to him.

He pointed to the page, "show me your thought process."

Sakura immediately calmed down and begin to comb through her logic, "You see there's no way to protect the cart itself with all its weapons shown in broad daylight.. also according to the landscape it might be a good idea to paint it in the same color as its surroundings..."

Sasuke listened intently, asking many questions along the way. Sakura was smart enough not to divulge all of her information while making some basic pointers that could have come to him after he tested out the machine do the first time.

They talked late into the night.

XxxxxxxxXxxxxxxx

The next day, as dawn approaches, all the soldiers begin to lace up their amours and grab their weapons. Sasuke stood on the tall wall and watched as the enemies stood a few hundred meters away, chanting in a strange sound. Both Sasuke and Sakura wore earmuffs to protect themselves, and even so Sakura felt a bit dizzy.

All soldiers were equipped with earmuffs, and it wasn't an uncommon thing to them anymore. They have expertly inserted a clean and sanitized thin film, then shoved a lump of sand clay mixture into their ears, and on top of that a layer of thick earmuffs. Needless today their hearing is completely cut off, therefore fighting with a sense gone is a skill one must equip with when fighting the Oto nation.

Sakura saw clear as day as a row of puppets guard the wall, another row was firing the arrows, and the third is a row of soldiers hidden within puppets and driving the massive tank like machine.

She suddenly realized that the machine have already been built, and some of her suggestions were implemented over night. Either way, the machine is going to be used in battle.

The machine fired a large bomb right into the center of the opposing army.

Immediately, there was screaming and running everywhere. The Oto soldier

The Oto soldiers were quickly dispersed. Those who came forward are killed by puppets, and those who turned back ran like hell.

This all happened within half an hour, and even when Sakura was watching on the wall, she couldn't help but shiver at the sight.

Then Sasuke took her down to the doors, and they exited through a horse carriage without curtains. The army in front of them was moving at a rapid pace. The tank machine itself was moved by 20 different soldiers and their puppets.

They drove on.

Sakura asked Sasuke, "where are we going?"

Sasuke said calmly, "to demolish their city."

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A/N: holidays are here! I have more time to update. Please review! It gives me strength to continue.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Sakura watched in horror was the machine blasted a hole through the Oto Nation's capital city wall and the army ventured in through the debris.

It's foolish for her to feel pity, it's foolish for her to say anything. These are enemies of the nation, she knew better than speaking up.

Especially when the machine firing various fire bombs throughout, with soldiers Sasuke brought from the capital constantly adding fuel and fire to each bomb. It seems to know no limits, firing at all directions, harming civilians.

Obviously the city did not expect such an attack. Under normal circumstances battles would end at city walls. Surrender was an option and negotiation talks would be in place immediately after. Sasuke have chosen an unconventional route and begin to demolish the city and everything else stood in his path.

And he did it without a sliver of emotion.

Sakura sat by his side as the carriage rolled over the ashes and corpses, and the tank rolled from the north entrance of the city, all the way to the end.

A capital city is the heart of a nation. Sasuke have drove a stake through its heart.

Sakura felt sick and want to puke again. She turned away and stopped looking.

When they were done, Lord Rasa came up to Sasuke and asked, "your royal highness, the Oto leaders have fled a few hours before.. this city has nothing else left to offer."

Sasuke stared him down, "Kill anyone else still alive within the city."

"Including civilians?"

"Naturally."

Lora Rasa hesitated.

"Do you have a problem with my command?" Sasuke asked coldly without any honorifics.

Sakura pulled on Sasuke's sleeve, "Your royal Highness, it's really hot out.."

Sasuke turned to look at her.

"When it's hot out, plus all the corpses that doesn't get buried, they will either leave in the sun to rot or be dumped into the river.. and with all the rotting, this is how plagues start. Plagues will spread airborne..."

Sakura plead with him, "think of the civilians in our own nation, they will catch the plague, and with constant traveling between cities.."

Sasuke thought it made a lot of sense.

"Let's turn back. Send a message to the Oto, they're allowed to come and collect the corpse of their fallen soldiers." Sasuke said.

And the carriage drove back with the death machine and an army following.

Everyone cheered as they walked back, and all Sakura could see was smoke and corpses.

XxxxxxxxXxxxxxxx

That night there was a huge celebration. Many roasting fires were set up almost immediately and there's whole roasted lamb, pig, chunks of beef and various huge plates of dishes. Everyone gorged themselves on the foods and there was dances all over. Tenten was part of the dance troupe for the entertainment of the Suna soldiers, then Suna presented their own dance troupe.

Suna's culture and customs are vastly different from the Capital due to climate. The dancers who are performing are wearing veils and very revealing clothing. Soldier of Suna were cheering them on while soldiers from the capital sat and stared, they did not know it was possible to dance like this outside of a prostitution street.

Sakura sat at a corner with Tenten. Both are eating and talking about their day. Sakura was still bummed about the battle. It seemed like a bad video game simulation but when she saw it with her own eyes and felt the heat and smell the blood in the air, she felt sickened by the whole thing.

Tenten agreed. And she felt lucky to not have witnessed the thing.

"Why did the prince bring you though? Just to show the machine?"

Sakura frowned, "maybe it's his way of showing off."

"Or intimidation." Tenten pondered thoughtfully, but quickly casting the idea aside and start chewing a rack of ribs, "I never ate like this! There's something freeing and vulgar about using hands!"

Sakura blinked, as if reminded by the intimidation sentence, she looked up at Sasuke who sat in front of the fire eating from a jade plate. He noticed her looking at him from far away, and he locked her gaze.

Sakura shuddered internally. She wanted to break off the eye contact but couldn't. At last he smiled a little, waved his hands and motioned for her to go over there.

Sakura quickly stood up, and said to Tenten, "be right back."

She walked timidly past all the partying soldier and went over to him. He looks mesmerizing in the dark, adored in battle robe and silk, while light from flames ricocheting off his eyes. His face is still emotionless, but somehow have a lighter and softer feel to it.

He extended his hand, allowing her to touch him, "come here." He said, smiling finally.

She's at arms length, and her entire being melted a little when he smiled at her. For the first time she felt warmth inside, radiating outwards.

She raised her hand and caught his, and fell into his embrace. It was a cold night, and he wrapped his robe around her hugging her tightly.

At the same time, a soldier serving trays of delicacies two meters away threw his tray on the ground, dashed over to the Royal Prince when he was not looking, and pulled out a small dagger.

By the time other people have noticed it it was too late. The dagger was the size of a man's hand and he concealed it nicely. It was only when he's dangerously close to the Royal Prince when someone yelled, "lookout!"

Sakura was awoken from his mesmerizing trance, and quickly pushed Sasuke away out of embarrassment, and this push resulting Sasuke to fall back a couple of steps, while the dagger went through the silk robe, and into her arm.

The assassin never knew who he stabbed, for he commuted suicide almost immediately after. Sasuke kicked away him away while still holding Sakura's arms when she fell down onto the ground, in shock and dismay.

The entire party became a rioting of a mess while Lord Rasa attempted to maintain clam and peace, and Sasuke carrying Sakura back to the tent while ordering for medics.

"Shhh, it's ok." Sasuke sat her down on the bed and peeled away the clothing on her arm, revealing a bloody mess. He quickly used several clean clothes to wipe away the excess blood.

Sakura was still in shock. Tears were pouring from her eyes and she didn't even know it.

When he was pressing some clothes down for her, she found her voice and asked, "will I die?"

He looked into her eyes, "of course not. I won't allow it."

She saw the panic in his eyes, and smiled softly at him, "it doesn't hurt, not really."

He held onto her other hands and kissed her fingers, "you pushed me out of the way, I- wait, it doesn't hurt?"

"It feels kind of numb, actually." She muttered.

Sasuke removed the clothes and the raw flesh wound appeared in their sight.

The wound was not a simple knife wound. The knife was laced with poison, because the wound turned black, with ugly spider leg like black veins radiating from the initial stab.

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A/N: Merry Christmas my lovelies, someone suggested character tags. How do I do that? What's a character tag?


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Sakura faded in and out of consciousness for the next few days. At last the doctor in Suna renounced their capability to help her and insisted she really needs to be sent to the Capital right away. Sasuke decided he will do it by taking up a war horse, heavy capes and wrapped Sakura in his arms and rode back as fast as he possibly could.

Against the advisement of political figures and various generals, Sasuke took the forestry route back. He did not disclose his precise route in fear of a leak and ambush, but it's safe to say that the closer he gets to the capital the safer he will be.

Sakura drifted in and out of consciousness. Her dreams consists of different scenarios that mixed between her previous life and this one. She retained some memories of her past and her family, and she begin to utter nonsense when she's semi-awake.

One particular dream stayed with her. It was when she's standing in a pond and looking over at the shores and saw Sasuke. He's smiling at her and motion for her to come near him. She tried very hard to swim towards him but couldn't. Then she got irritated and said, "you have to meet me half way, I can't make all the effort."

He jumped into the pool, and Sakura realized for the first time that her surrounding were black and white, and when he come into the pond, everything radiating from his presence begin to have color. He raised his hand to touch her face and stoking her cheeks as if she's the most priceless piece of jewel he had ever seen, and she herself begin to see the world in color.

Sakura smiled, and at that moment she felt deliriously happy.

In reality she's slipped deeper into dreams and Sasuke, who is traveling with her in his arms on a horse's back, pinched her cheeks really hard to make sure she does not fall into deep unconsciousness.

Sakura was jolted awake for a brief moment, she couldn't see things clearly due to her surrounding being so dark, but she saw under the moonlight the trees casts faint shadows upon Sasuke's chiseled face. She felt his menacing pinch and she complained incoherently, "you just won't let me get a good night sleep won't you? I have to wait on my hands and knees literally... I want to sleep..."

Sasuke ignored her babbles and focused on rushing the horse to kept on going.

One of the reasons why Capital City Konoha is impenetrable is the forestry that surrounds it. The city itself resides in the deepest part of a dense and old forest sites. Even though the city itself is large and peaceful, outside its walls are miles of trees. To the north there's the tundra, and south there's the canyon valley. Only four main patches goes in and out of Konoha, and Sasuke must go through the south valley.

Normally the Valley is fine to go through during broad daylight. When it gets dark, different nocturnal creatures comes out to hunt for prey and food, in additional to various poisonous fungus and insects that crawls about the entire place. Releasing different sorts of poison clouded with damp air trapping it into the valley. This dense and poisonous condition had the locals call the Konoha Valley as the Valley of Death. A cliche but apt name, with all the different corpses decomposing in the valley.

This valley is the reason why Konoha is so medically renowned. Different medical professionals al over the world comes to Konoha to research the valley and finding different poison and antidotes.

When Sasuke arrived at the edge of the valley, he hesitated. To go through the valley would cut his journey to half a day before he gets back. To wait for the sun to come up would mean wasting precious few hours that Sakura may not have. To go around the valley would also mean wasting time. The best and most direct route he should take is going through the valley. He striped away part of his silk cape and formed two crude face masks. One he put on Sakura and one he out on himself. He switched horses in a nearby neighbour town and rode in.

It was a cold and long night. Sakura doesn't remember what happened when they went through the valley, but she remembered Sasuke's arms around her, strong, warm, and consistent.

XxxxxxxxXxxxxxxx

A couple days later, Sakura woke up, feeling better than ever. Her sluggishness was almost gone, and despite being very weak and hungry, she was able to get up all by herself, because there were nobody around her.

This is strange. She's on a very elaborate bed. A bed she recognized. This is one of the guest rooms of the Royal Prince's manor. She used to clean the floors and dust the windows of this bed when she first came.

Then she heard the different noises and drums that rang in the distance. She rubbed her eyes and ears and attempted to get off the bed. A servent girl with a tray of porridge came in and saw her, immediately she rushed over and exclaimed, "you're awake! Oh lord, thank goodness you're awake!"

"What happened?" Sakura asked, eyeing the delicious porridge. She licked her lips and found her lips to be moist and well taken care of.

"Your life is worth its own weight in gold." She said, "his Royal Highness carried you back to Capital City all the way from Suna within a couple of days! And he even went through Death Valley... which caused his illness..."

"What?" Sakura was confused for a second, in between drinking her porridge, then she grasped the main point, "the prince is ill?"

"Yes, no doubt from inhaling all that dark and damp gasses at night. He couldn't even stand up properly when he came into the city, only when he endured a doctor was able to see you he fainted-"

"He fainted? Are you sure?" Sakura had a hard time imagining a man as strong as him could ever faint.

"Yes. The Emperor and the Dowager Empress are very worried, they send teams of doctors over, and they even went to the temples to pray for the monks to come and bless the Royal Prince with health..."

"Let me see him." Sakura quickly said, limping off her bed and with the help of the girl, they walked over to Sasuke's bed chambers.

As big as the room is, there must've been at least 30 people crowding the bed. If this was in a modern hospital the nurses would've gotten rid of everyone. In front of the chambers there are various monks kneeling and praying for blessing, and beats of drums and bon fires with dancers dressed in elaborate costume as rituals.

Sakura squeezed herself in, and to her relief everyone crowding the bed are doctors. Neither the Emperor or the Dowager Empress is present at the moment.

Sasuke lie on the large bed, weak and unconscious.

The first thought Sakura had was that he should go to the hospital right away and be placed in an ICU. Second was that all these noises are really bothering her, and she's awake.

She cleared her throat, and everyone went silent to look at her. If there's one thing people learnt what to do is to recognize authority in a room. Sakura looked towards the various doctors and asked, "what do you suggest we should do?"

The doctors all lowered their heads and mumbled incoherently.

It's not that they're incompetent, it's that anything they say will be used against them and it's a great way to get yourself killed if your medical suggestions do not work immediately.

Sakura shot them a contempt look, and turned to Sasuke. She raised her hand to touch his face like he did in her dream, and discovered him to be burning up.

She looked down at her arm, which was bandaged and mostly healed, and decided that since she owed her life to him, she should try her best to save him somehow. And the first step is to lower his temperatures.

"Everyone who do not have a good suggestion, get out of the room. Clear the air, put out the fire, fan away the smoke, open up the windows and do all this as quietly as possible." She said clearly but calmly, and everyone had to lean in and listen closely. "Give me some clean clothes and cold water. Get me some ice from the underground storage vault-"

Everyone did exactly what they're told, since they're gladly to have Sakura shouldering all responsibilities.

When things died down, Sakura took iced towels and placed it on his forehead, while stripping his robes to wipe away sweats. The problem with this is that she haven't had intimate contact with him yet, despite what everyone thinks, and she can't really strip him clean and give him a cold sponge bath.

Just as she was deciding what to do, suddenly Sasuke muttered, "prince... where's the Crowned Prince?"

The difference between a Crowned prince and a Royal prince is that the first is destined to be the Emperor, and the latter will always be inferior. In his case, Sakura gathered he'd probably talking about his brother. But his brother is already the Emperor, it was a long time ago when the nation had a Crowned Prince.

"We can't wait, there's no time, he has to ... Crown... my brother..." Sasuke suddenly became agitated and delirious, grasping onto air while struggling.

Sakura was confused. She quickly lent her hand out and intertwined her finger with his, "the Crowned prince is fine, he's the Emperor now. Your brother cares about you very much, he's sending his best doctors over..."

Everyone in the room backed away when they first heard Sasuke muttering. They knew that he's muttering secrets. It has been long rumored that since Sasuke and Itachi looked identical, when the previous emperor died it was actually Sasuke disguised as Itachi ascended the throne. Itachi was imprisoned somewhere and could not make it for his coronation or something. This is extremely dangerous information because it could mean the throne would be up to debate. It's all very complicated, and those who ever mentioned it or made guesses were all executed. Later it was written in history textbooks that Sasuke was up in the temple on mountains, there's no way he ever left and got involved in the politics.

Those who head Sasuke's initial mumbled quickly backed away and ran out the room, even the doctor that was staying by Sakura's side turned away and left almost immediately. All other servants quickly found excuses and something else to do. While Sakura was cluelessly naive, she held onto Sasuke's hand and soothed him back to a calming state.

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A/N: Happy New Year!


	23. Chapter 23

Chapters 23

The next few days were probably the hardest days of her and everyone else's life. Each and every person's entire focus is evolving around Sasuke's health. Sakura had to hold Sasuke's hands most of the time. Even when he's unconscious he become agitated and thrashes around when he's not holding Sakura's hands. Sakura tried to substitute her hands with another person's, but somehow Sasuke always knows the difference and frowns and mutters incoherent words. To have the Royal Prince calm, everyone begs Sakura to stay with the prince at all times.

Everyone treated Sakura with as much respect as possible. The only reason why the Royal Prince fell sick is because of her. In a way, she's as valuable as the Prince.

Sasuke's condition stagnated. He's not getting worse but he's not getting better either. Everyone is exhausted, and all servants are cleaning up the mjanor over and over to ensure the purest condition for the prince to get well in. All government official visited and brought the rarest medicine and herbs for the prince hoping he would get well soon.

The Emperor visited once, when Sakura was asleep in her quarters, one of the few times that she's able to sleep. When she woke up, she caught the very end of the visit.

Itachi is a man of few words. He doesn't like to repeat himself and most people are able to read his expression or looks. Any tiny gesture he presents isn't without meaning. Every step he take is the correct direction. Today, he brought a rare medicine that was rumored to have saved his own life once before.

Sakura just entered the chambers, and the guards knew better than blocking her way. She rubbed her eyes and snuck at the very back looking at the whole scene. She could only see Itachi's back, as he was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking over his brother. He raised his hand and motioned for the Royal guards to come forward, which they did, and the guards presented a pure jade container the size of a soccer ball. Everyone watched intently as a doctor opened up the container with silk gloves, and took out the medicine within, which was lying on top golden silk threads.

Sakura tried to get a good glimpse of the medicine. She knew that during these times alchemy was prevalent, and all sorts of disgusting stuff went into the procedure of alchemy. The end result is a bunch of different metallic residues. Sakura certainly does not want Sasuke to ingest extra metals.

So when the medicine presented itself, Sakura saw a dark color and was very concerned. She edged closer, pushing away various doctors all ooohing and ahhing in the presence of the amazing magical pill that's rumored to bring a person back from the dead-Sakura saw it, clear as day, that it looked a lot like... chocolate.

It's square and had a brown and glossy cover, but there's only a few gram of it, in small chunks.

Chocolate?! At this day and age?

She was still in awe and her mind was spinning when the doctor and his helpers pried open Sasuke's mouth and they carefully placed it on his tongue, then spoon fed him some water.

The Emperor watched closely in silence, and when Sasuke swallowed the whole thing, Itachi motioned for everyone to leave.

Everyone immediately begin to scatter, so did Sakura. She quickly backed out of the room and stood by the door with the rest of the staff. She was still in shock and thinking about the chocolate. It looked like chocolate but maybe it's some sort of roots that's created to be brown too. If only she could taste it then she'll figure out if it's actually chocolate. Unfortunately she has a feeling that they're the last few pieces in this world.

"Hey what was that medicine?" She asked a doctor standing next to her quietly.

The doctor rubbed his beard and said, "I've only heard of it. It was said to have saved the Emperor's life when he was just a young boy! The doctors in the Royal court have taken a small amount and analyze its content and concluded it to be a concoction of a rare tree root... "

Sakura decided it couldn't be chocolate. Or else it would have to be at least ten years old, and that's a bit nasty.

Then the Emperor walked out, followed by many guards and servants. When he got to the door he said to the doctor next to Sakura, "He's the only brother I have left. Look after him."

The doctor quickly knelt down on all fours as a sign of utmost respect, as did everyone else. Apparently no one is supposed to be standing on equal footing with the Emperor.

Sakura quickly knelt down too. She couldn't get a good look at Itachi because people had their head down. She could see the edge of Itachi's black leather boots lingering in front of her for a couple of seconds before walking off.

This is the Emperor being unusually loquacious.

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Sasuke woke up a couple days later.

Everyone automatically assumed it was the medicine. Sakura personally believes it's just exposing to sunshine and clean air and the lack of food ingested has cleaned out the residue toxins from his body.

Sasuke felt weak at first, but he still insisted on getting various reports from Suna and its situation. He then dwelt into various letter writing and planning of further invasion. There were no such thing as instant messaging, so letters had to be thorough and well planned out before being sent.

When things settled down, Sasuke planned to take a formal trip to the Jade Palace. This isn't like the usual greeting his brother and mother type of trip. For this trip to be official and be documented in historical text books, various animal sacrifices needs to be made, lots of preparation for a feast, and a selection of customs made brand new clothing. Sasuke has always gone a couple times a year, usually during New Years or birthdays.

The difference is that this time, it wasn't anyone's birthday nor was it a holiday, and he's bringing Sakura with him.

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A/N: I'm making good progress with updating.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

It was during the earliest dawn when Sakura was woken up by a flurry of servant girls, and she was scrubbed clean, trimmed and powdered for her visit. Although even they themselves doesn't seem to have an idea of what type of attire to dress her in because she technically is still in the status of a concubine. A common concubine. One that doesn't deserve to be seen with the Prince, and only slightly better than other common servant girls. She seem to have taken on most of the chores with the prince, however her position doesn't quite seem the same as other attending servants. It was in the air of how she's being treated by the housekeeper, by the elder maids, and by the Prince himself. The girls revered her, and it doesn't help that there was a rumor that someone tried to play a trick on Sakura a couple months ago was beaten and eventually killed. Or something of that nature.

However Sakura doesn't act smug. She acts the same and she treats everyone the same. She attends small gatherings with maids, and she talks to her friends and she even cooks sometimes for them, when the Prince is out and about and she has some free time. However she never got too close with anyone, and it's as if she treats the girls as her children rather than co-workers. This is probably true as we know, Sakura's mental age far exceeds her physical age. This advantage has probably saved her life and helped her adjust to this world on multiple occasions.

Sakura watched, while half asleep, two different maids hold each half of her hair and laced them with gel and wax to hold them in place of making an elaborate hairstyle that involves loops and different hair ornaments. then slathered on different types of conditioning oil, and painted her face with rouge and and darkened her eye with liner. She observed in fascination that even in this era, make-up is an art form and must be meticulously applied.

"Miss, your skin doesn't have any blemishes." A younger girl said while smiling.

Sakura smiled back at her and didn't respond. This isn't what she was used to look like. She used to be skinny, somewhat athletic, with elongated eyes, like a fox. In this life time, the girl she projected into have a slightly rounder and curvier body, large round eyes, and a soft and plump face. She looks-comfortable. She has a face that made other people smile when looking at her. When she speaks it's as if she's quietly advising purely for your consideration. It's a very lovely, wife-like, and well-behaved figure. She doesn't have high cheekbones, prominent features or even particular beauty. She's the type of girl who can't be picked out from a crowd of masses. Which is why it's such a wonder why the Royal Prince has taken a liking to her, instead of other girls who are beautiful in a traditional standard of glamour.

Sakura doesn't know either. It's not that she haven't thought about it. It's just that she assumed maybe the Prince has always been with extremely beautiful girls and now he's in the mood for something else. Something more ordinary and bland, like a change in flavor. She also knows, from past experience, when someone who way exceed your expectation and level of compatibility with you, it's probably not going to last, or from an angle of manipulation. Any girl would swoon and be way over their heads when a handsome young millionaire who drives a Ferrari waits by your door to take you on a date. It's in their nature. Those girls who are well adjusted and emotionally healthy during their childhood probably won't loose themselves that fast, but girls who had a childhood that was accompanied by strict teachings, stripped away of unconditional love and filled with anxiety would probably fall head over heels.

Sakura was one of the latter. She didn't exactly have an abusive childhood. It was normal. Normalcy does not mean good. her childhood consist of strict parents who give love when she succeeded and took it away when she failed. They did not encourage failure and second attempts. This caused Sakura to grow up in the same common and shallow state of mind as every other girl, chasing celebrities and wanting excess. At the same time she lived in a normal city, not one of those metropolises where money is made of. So she didn't encounter a gross misappropriation of love or mistrust. She simply... grew up. She has been through relationships, read books, traveled, and volunteers, and lost loved ones. She saw life as it is and asked herself if that's all there is, and apparently, it wasn't.

Even though she has seen excess on TV, she has never seen it on a national scale. She has seen buildings made by machines, but never ones that are made completely by hand and in such good preserved condition. She went to museums and saw these things after hundreds of years, never in their prime. When being shown through all its glory, she's mystified, and she is in awe of human intellect, capability, and developed this great respect for mankind in general. Sasuke observes her in amusement, assuming she haven't seen these things before and she's amazed with all the wealth. But every one of her emotions are brand new, without greed, and filled with reverence. He enjoys that. He enjoys her attitudes that approaches the world without fear or attempts of manipulation, rather a calm admiration. He has seen too many greed in too many people's eyes. It's disheartening.

When they exit the carriage, Sakura was extra careful not to trip over her robe, and Sasuke, adorned in embroidered silk robes and jade, walked on. She followed closely after. She looked at the palace, and was dumbfounded by its sheer size.

The front courtyard must've been able to fit four football fields side by side. the walls are so far from one another she suspect it would take her 10 full minutes to walk from one end to another. Even though, they're painted with the most intense red it's frightening, and not a single spot was withered away from erosion, it looks brand new.

Then they approach this huge gate embellished with golden knobs in a row all over the door, and huge statues of dragons on both sides, and a flight of stone marbles.

Sasuke already reached the bottom of the stairs, he turned around to wait for her as she quickly jogged a few steps to catch up. She's wearing ancient heels and they're not that comfortable.

She was still admiring the dragons adorned with red ruby as eyes when the gate opened by four guards on each side, and they pushed the heavy doors with all their might to open them. She has never seen a gate so humongous in real life, and her eyes widened as she stepped up to the top of the stairs and cross the threshold to another courtyard

There must've been close to a thousand people, kneeling and still down on the ground lying all in nice little rows . They were all wearing formal palace clothing, and buried their head down with their forehead on the ground. They left the middle row empty for Sasuke, Sakura, and the crowd that was following them to walk in, and they walked past each person, until they reached a set of marble stairs consisting 6 flights of stairs and 27 steps to each one. It goes all the way to the very top, where a huge building structure sits, with elaborate roof carvings, large golden pillars, and intricate door frame and windows. In front of the structure, stood a few figures in front which Sakura can't makeout their features because they're too far away, but she knew it was the Emperor and his mother. There's a crow of servants standing behind the Emperor diligently in succinct lines and places, and each mistep meant death.

Despite the crowds, everything is dead silent as they climbed the stairs.

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A/N: I'll update more, this time I promise. This story isn't difficult to write. I've also updated Apathy recently, you guys are welcomed to check that out. A reviewer was right. I was getting tired of writing Apathy, which is why it spanned 5 years. But I am determined to finish it, and hopefully finish this one. At the rate this is going, and the way I'm planning, I think this story will actually be longer in length than Apathy.

Love all around to my reviewers and followers. I love you guys so much.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Sakura followed Sasuke and climbed all the way up those 162 marble steps before walking along a platform with torches on the side and soldiers guarding them to in front of the Emperor and his crowd waiting.

She lowered her head, because one is not supposed to look at the royal family directly in the face. A palace servant announced their names and statuses before they bowed.

Even though they see each other often enough, during formal visitations Sasuke bowed and knelt down deeply to Itachi and said all the formal lines, which include a long epitaph, the formal name of the Emperor, and the metaphorical long lives people hope the Emperor will have, and they waited for a few seconds before the Emperor repeated back in a warm but formal greeting inviting them to stand up again.

Sakura immediately noted that even their voices sounds within the same tune, Itachi's voice is much calmer, and collected and slightly deeper sounding.

Then she heard the Dowager Empress standing spoke. "Sakura-san, you may stand up. Sasuke, let me look at you."

To which Itachi stepped aside out and let the Dowager Empress step forward to greet Sasuke.

"You've gotten thinner." She said, approaching him.

Sakura thought she was going to hug him, but she stopped around a meter away from Sasuke, and she realized that even in royal families, mothers and sons are probably abiding to strict contact rules.

The Dowager Empress looks... regal. She is adorned in bright red silk robes with golden silk threats that all her ensembles together. She has kind looking eyes and young feature, but her actions betrays her age and wisdom. She moves with purpose, as if every single step was thoroughly thought out. Sakura only could observe through the peripheral of her eye, as she looks straight ahead, because it's rude to turn your head and stare during normal encounters, its unforgivable if it's to another member of the royal family. And that is when she accidentally looked straight into the eye of the Emperor.

She has always heard that the Royal Prince and the Emperor looked exactly alike, however when she saw him, it seems as if though they could not be more different.

The Royal Prince has always had some sort of expression on his face, one can decipher his mood from a look he has. People who spent time around him will know how to decode how he Emperor, however does not have any particular expression on his face...ever. Sakura could tell right away that this is man who has been so used to hide his inner feeling and facial expression he probably has never laughed out loud once in his life. The Emperor stood there, emotionless as ever, but sometimes slight muscles on his face would turn the right way to signal that he's not angry at the whole situation.

Sakura met his gaze, and he looked back at her for a moment, before Sakura could quickly avert her gaze, he already stepped up and interrupted his brother and mother from chatting and standing in the code and suggests everyone should move indoors.

The crowd trotted into the Great Court with the Emperor in front, half a step away is the Dowager Empress, and the Royal Prince followed three steps away.

This crowd moved at a slow pace. Sakura fell behind with the servants, but to her surprise, she found that all the 30 attendants or so have been so attuned with the Emperor's foot steps they're following along in the exact movement. She seemed to be the only one that is out of place.

The Great Court is decorated with golden pillars with carvings of dragons on each. There are 18 golden pillars in total, each one the width of a meter, and every detail have been polished shiny and clean. The floor is made from the deepest and darkest red. She suspected this was done intentionally, for she rarely has seen any red flooring. The marble floors are shiny and slippery, so she tried her best to stay upright. Towards the end of the court, there is a 18 golden steps that ascends up, and on top lies a chair decorated in the most elaborate jewels and carvings, polished in pure gold.

The Emperor slowly stepped up as all others stayed below the steps. Each step seemed to take forever, and Sakura looked on as the Emperor finally sat down. The moment he sat, everyone knelt down and chanted in his honor.

Sakura knelt down, but she forgot to keep her head down, and so she was the only one with her head up looking at the Emperor when everyone was showing the back of their heads to the ruler of this country. She couldn't not help but wonder, how lonely it seemed. With each step that he took, he sheds a layer of his relationship, until the only thing that remains is himself, sitting on top of the world, looking down at everyone, including his family.

She looked at Sasuke and wondered too, for a moment, if he ever felt jealous or unfairness. If he ever thought that the entire fate was messed up by order of his birth, a mere three minutes, and he was doomed to sit one step below the throne, and look on to serve, instead to rule. Then she decided that their relationship was way too difficult for her to ever figure out. Maybe they're both ok with their positions.

Itachi raised his hand slightly, and his announcing attendant bellowed out, "All rise." Putting an emphasis on the last syllable, stretching it to three or more seconds.

Everyone stood up in unison. As they stood, Sakura discovered that everyone in the court parted their ways and stood on the side. Sasuke, the Dowager Empress, and Sakura were the only one remained. An attendant soon came, and announced, "The Empress is waiting outside."

The Dowager Empress chuckled and quickly said, "let her in, she should have been with us since the beginning."

The Emperor nodded slightly, and soon the Empress along with her attendants came following. The Empress is a lovely young woman that could not be older than Sakura by much. However she looks serene and experienced, which might make others be deceived by her actual age. Sakura stepped to the side and let her joined the in the middle. She glanced towards Sakura only slightly before saying all the pleasantries to everyone in present, at the same time swiftly and sincerely apologizing for her lateness, which was not her fault to begin with, because she was not told to enter the court unless granted by the Emperor.

Sakura's first feeling was that this girl isn't as simple as one would've looked. She is extremely beautiful, but for a girl to be this beautiful and young to have climbed up so far in society already, it must've been difficult. She must've came from a prominent family, or have fought her way to the top. Nevertheless it was all for naught, because apparently the Emperor is not sleeping with her, and no doubt this is a public humiliation for her. However, he isn't exactly sleeping around with anyone, so this might have eased it a bit.

Now they're talking about the war, and everyone congratulated Sasuke on his success. This went on for another ten minutes with Sasuke answering questions in poorly concealed boredom. There's a special art to speaking like this though, Sakura has discovered it isn't enough that they conceal their wishes in expert cliches, they often hide their true intent in well wishes and passive aggressive languages. She couldn't never talk like that. It'd be exhausting

When all the pleasantries are said and done, Sasuke apparently hated all these fuss. He quickly turned to his brother, and said, "Pardon my bluntness, I would like to formally express my proposition."

Itachi raised his hand, "Before you go on, I insist we feast in celebration of your victory first."

Sasuke said without missing a beat, "Brother, please allow me this request, for I have rarely asked you for else. I intend to take the fourth daughter of the Haruno Household as my wife—the Royal Princess."

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TBC


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Apparently the moment after that little speech, Sakura is the only one who was actually surprised.

For one, nobody ever told her that she is going to be the Princess. She sort of is already Sasuke's concubine, meaning various girls he has in his court that he's allowed to sleep with in the hopes of producing a male heir. Concubines meant not a whole lot if they do not get pregnant with a child. They are bound to housework and chores just as much as everyone else. A Royal Prince can have many concubines, but he can only have one Princess. The head of the household, one to take care of everything within his court, and one to share his bed every night. She will be, in every since of the word, his partner for life.

Because divorce among royalty was practically impossible.

So we go back to the scene when Sasuke made his proposal, and Sakura was the only one who was surprised by this revelation, because apparently, nobody ever told her. None of the royal family member was surprised by this little outburst, because every knew Sasuke's intentions, he must've informed them prior to this whole show.

Itachi looked towards to Sakura in amusement, and raised his eyebrow and spoke to the Dowager Empress, "mother?"

The Dowager Empress paused for a few moments before speaking in the most clear and concise manner, "Your Royal Highness, The Emperor and I have discussed this in length for quite some time, and we both agree that even though we have urged you to take on a Princess, our assumption was that her position in the court should be substantial to fit your status."

Sasuke looked extremely annoyed. He was about to speak when his mother quickly said, "However, we came to a compromise that I assume all parties present would be happy to comply."

She stopped talking, and looking towards the Emperor, then back at Sasuke.

Sasuke waited for her to finish impatiently.

"You may take Haruno-san as a Princess Consort first, and should the occasion arise in the future, the position as the head of the main household would still be open." She finished, as if giving in a great deal in this decision.

Sakura was dumbfounded. This is all happening so fast. Several layers should be dissected for what happened within the last minute. First, she was to be officially married into the Royal Family, second, apparently her husband-to-be wanted to take her on as a primary wife, the official wife. However his family does not approve and they only allow him to take her on as a side wife. Apparently this was a discussion taken by the Emperor and the Dowager Empress, and without their consent, their union cannot happen. And last of all, nobody has ever bothered to ask her what her opinion was. Not even the Royal Prince.

But living among such intimidating giants and looking at everything, she knew it'd be foolish to jump out and scream feminism. She closed her jaw, let herself be washed over with these information, and finally understood she does have feelings towards him. Perhaps it's not as strong as he suspected, but it's tender and beautiful. She admires him, because of his capabilities, talent, and demeanor. She admires those things because it's something she longed for but sorely lacks.

She looked towards Sasuke for an answer, waiting for his reply.

Sasuke didn't answer right away. He looked straight towards his mother for the longest time. It wasn't a look of simple hatred, but a mixed variety of emotions. He thought about everything happened in his life, his brother's life, the sacrifices they made, and the sacrifices she made for them, and everything that came in between. It was a long and intense look, and the whole court was dead silent for the full minute.

He then said in a clear and determined voice to his mother, "I would never take another wife, in this lifetime."

Then he turned to Sakura, who was gazing toward him with adoration and trust. For the first time since they entered the place, he smiled back at her, and said, "Brother, please set a date and we can proceed to the feast."

Sasuke turned to Itachi after he finished the sentence, and the Emperor looked down at the two of them down below in bemusement for a few seconds, before motioning, "We have decided the September ninth, two months from now. This should allot for sufficient time for preparation. Congratulations to the two of you."

Everything was planned out twenty steps ahead in court.

Sakura and Sasuke both knelt down and thanked for the Emperor's graciousness.

"Have the court draw up all relevant papers." Emperor said to his attendant, and then stood up, "Let us proceed to the banquet."

Everything was already planned out. They followed after his footsteps and proceeded to the banquet hall south of the Great Court, its another elaborate space decorated in white marbles and incredulous grand design. The difference was that their was two long rows of tables on each side, and every single dish was already placed on the table in meticulous manner, lined up all in a row. Their was a main dish every meter, and 11 side dishes surrounding each round plates. The table made from mahogany wood, and in addition, all important officials within the court are already seated. The moment the Emperor entered, everyone stood up in unison, got out from the tables and knelt down in a row to the side, and the Emperor walked up through the long rows to the end, where there's 9 steps of stairs, and two ivory table placed at the top, one for the Emperor, one for the Dowager Empress.

Sakura immediately noticed the change. After the Emperor announced his approval, she walks along side Sasuke, perhaps a step behind when she was used to it, but she noticed he deliberately slowed down his stride for her to catch up. She quickly jogs a couple steps, and he would turn to look at her and smile dotingly.

All the grandure fell apart when she looks at him. She wondered if she's suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, but recently he haven't been making her miserable. In fact he has let her loose and she did not have to follow many of the rules in place for other concubines or servants as she did in the beginning. She wondered if she really does love him deeply, deep enough to spend the rest of her life with him, because often these feelings are hard to tell. But she thought about how a man of his status abandoned his health to save her, and she realized she has never known that he's the person she has been looking for all her life, this one and the previous, until that moment.

She followed him, and he sat at the very end, closest to the ivory steps, symbolizing his closeness with the court. After he sat down he motioned for her to sit next to him, and for the first time, she sat next to him, having a complete seat to her own.

Everyone rose and offered their congratulations one by one as they all sat, and they waited until everyone finished their blessing.

Sakura, still a bit dazed, looking around at all the flash, until she felt her hand being gripped under the table by Sasuke. She relaxed a bit and turn to look at him gratefully.

"Are you happy?" He asked, eyes concerned and nervous.

It's the first thing he said since their engagement, and she squeezed his hands back.

"Yes."

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TBC


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

The household welcomed them with intense graciousness. Everyone knelt down and expressed their joy and appreciation. Sakura, for the first time, does not have to kneel down with them to Sasuke. She was still dazed, and Sasuke asked the servants to quickly take her back to her quarters, which was newly prepared while they were gone. It's a wing near his residence quarters, and he purposely decorated it to her liking to surprise her. It's already dark, she won't notice any difference now, but when she wake up next morning she'll be thrilled, he's certain.

The next morning, very early, Sasuke got dressed in casual clothing, and quickly headed to the palace. This time there was no grand entrance of any kind, the guards let him in, and he only took two soldiers to accompany him, and he rode on horseback.

He went straight past all the courtyard and steps and the court, and headed to the Emperor's personal quarters. He waited outside for a couple of minutes before the servant girl said he could enter.

Itachi was already dressed, getting ready for early morning court assembly.

"You're early today." Sasuke remarked.

"Call it an intuition." Itachi said, his expression softened at the sight of his brother.

"You know what I want to know then?" Sasuke was restless. He's unable to stay still, so he paced back and forth in the large quarter.

Itachi sat on a chair while drinking tea and watched him pacing back and forth, "You're entitled to ask, but I might not be obliged to give an answer."

"Ok." The Prince faced him straight, "Whose idea was it?"

Itachi averted his gaze.

Sasuke laughed, "Brother, you and I are twins."

"Yes, what a shame." Itachi said mockingly.

"Why did she do it? Is it just because of her status? She wasn't of noble birth?" He asked in obvious disgust and distaste of his mother's opinion.

The Emperor chuckled at his brother's naiveness. Sometimes short emotions are snuck within his demeanor when he's alone with his loved ones, and currently that is only limited to Sasuke at the moment, at least, one who could response back. Then he wondered mildly if Sasuke is correct. When did these tradition establish to be so complicated and excessive?

Sasuke is getting nothing out of his brother. He often doesn't. Sometimes he would try to act more childish than usual to incite a reaction from his brother. Sometimes it would work, with Itachi tapping his forehead and say he's being foolish. Sometimes Itachi sits and looks at him with a slight smile on his face, which Sasuke finds very irritating. It makes him feel smaller than he actually is. Sasuke only behaves this way with Itachi, sometimes with his mother. He found that in recent years the older he gets the less he does it to his mother. There's a sense of something coming in between them, he couldn't tell. The Dowager Empress still dotes on Sasuke exceedingly, as does Itachi, but Sasuke could tell that she expects more from Itachi, as she often does throughout their lives.

When conversations turn wry, Sasuke often switch to childhood memories, and that never fails to put a slight smile on Itachi's face. One of the Emperor's favorite topic with his brother is to reminisce the rare and happy moments of childhood they spent together. During that time, it was them teaming up together against all of their other siblings and the adults around them.

"Brother, do you remember how I always took away your toys?" Sasuke asked with enthusiasm. Bullying his brother when they were young was one of the few moments he felt equal to Itachi.

Itachi, from a very young age, already learnt how to surrender his desires. He always let Sasuke take whatever Sasuke wanted from him, knowing Sasuke was already at a very unfair position since birth.

"How could I not?" Itachi replied, chuckling a little, "you were always making a fuss, and I wasn't allowed to, so I had to give them to you."

"I didn't really want them." Sasuke said nonchalantly, "I wanted your attention."

Itachi, for the first time in a long while, looked towards his brother with surprise and slight respect. "Really." His remark wasn't a question, it was laced with affirmation and mild sarcasm. He did not realize Sasuke had the mental maturity to admit that. It's one thing to acknowledge it, but another to actively admit it in public.

"Yeah. Remember that Ivory cyclical thing, the one with carvings and one layering inside another." Sasuke said, "I took that away, but I knew you really wanted it. But you were shut in that room all day, and I was bored."

"No matter." Itachi was always quick to forgive his brother, "I was planning on smashing it anyways, just to see what was inside making that tickling noise."

The object they were talking about was an ivory octarine ball. It's made from pure ivory and superlative craftsmanship carvings, and 9 balls of different size layering inside on another, with no open clasps. Each layer is carved with mystical creatures in filaments, and right in the center is something of an mystery object, but it clashes against the ivory and making the most exquisite sound. The only person who knows what lies in the center is the crafter, as in its complete form one could only see beyond past three or four layers.

It was uncommon to make it from pure ivory, as each layer may need months or even years of careful craftsmanship, but this ivory ball happens to be a gift bestowed from a foreign country to Flames for its surrender and graciousness of not eradicating its citizens. The gift was one of the most prized possession in that small country, and was placed on an holy alter for many many years, and given away symbolizing their desperate plead for peace and mercy, and it was being purposely handed to the young Crowed Prince as a toy to play with.

Sasuke took it, and he didn't care for it. Even at young age he showed immense interest in different weapons. He took it away and played with it for a while before neglecting it in his room. And one day when he came back from his studies, he found the ivory octarine ball on the floor, smashed to pieces.

He didn't think much of it, assuming one of the servants accidentally smashed it. He was mad though, and he banished a couple servants because of it.

It was such a trivial moment from their childhood Sasuke neglected to fully recall his memory. "I didn't know you wanted it that much."

"I was only curious." Itachi said, finish drinking his last sip of the tea and stood up, "I did find out what was inside. It was a silver ball."

Sasuke looked at his brother with intense scrutiny, to which Itachi looked back at him with equal bluntness. Sasuke then finally asked, "well, were you disappointed?"

Itachi turned around, and as he was walking out the door, he tapped Sasuke's forehead in a swift motion.

"Immensely."

XxXxXxXxXxXx

TBC

A/N: for those who were curious on what the ball looked like, google "ivory ball carving".


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

A week later, the Royal Prince prepared a formal visit to the Haruno household with Sakura.

The humble silk merchant's home spent a week in emergency preparation mode for this moment. They stripped everything from top to bottom and redecorated every corner, almost wiping half of their savings to prepare and pay for this visitation from the royal family.

Because they are traveling out of the manor, tradition dictates the Royal Prince could only stay for less than a day, but because the Prince desires to get to know them more, they've decided to stay for two days. This is a huge honour being bestowed upon this humble household, which had no royal affiliation whatsoever a week ago.

Sakura was getting around to combatting the dizziness and all the commotion and registering this as her new reality when she got ready for her departure towards her home as a guest, not a family member. This time she's following behind her soon to be husband, in a truer sense of the word. She did not feel too much familial ties to this family, but due to keeping up with appearances, she had to go through with all this.

Sasuke was considerably warmer towards her after their engagement. It was genuine and pure, as if finally letting go of a secret, like holding a breath of pure joy, and now he able to approach her without appearing proud like an aristocrat should.

Sakura found his change fascinating, although there are moments when he still reverts back to the cold demeanor, he has curbed it significantly with her around.

They rode in bright red carriages when they arrived at the Haruno Household, and Sakura stepped out, found that the entire place was re-painted so recently it's as if the paint haven't dried up yet.

Everybody stood at the front, not limited to their immediate family, they were dressed in the most formal clothing they have, and were smiling from ear to ear. Except for her father's various wives and Sakura's sisters.

Haruno-san was the most delirious man of all. He greeted the Prince by kneeling down, and as soon as he rose, he begin a string of flattery that Sasuke has always been tired of hearing, but he showed no irritation out of respect.

Then Sasuke raised his hand and servants came up bearing treasure chest full of goods; they're betrothal gifts he and the court prepared. Sakura didn't even know those until every single of the 9 chest full of treasures are on full display in front of their gate, all opened up for the examination of her father. These gifts consist of gems, jades, top quality silk and materials, valuable herbs and medicine, jewelry, and finally, a chest full of gold and silver bars.

Each chest holds a significant meanings and each item holds a wish and custom. This is bring prepared by the highest court official, in accordance with the Emperor and the Dowager Empress, going through final checks by the Royal Prince himself, and being carted off directly from the jade palace to this house.

Haruno-San was about to have a seizure from the excitement, and the rest of the family, especially Sakura's sisters, were writhing in jealousy and envy. There is no possible way for them to marry higher than Sakura at any point in their lives. Sakura's existence and marriage seemed like a stroke of luck that has been bestowed upon them, and everyone's status was elevated, including the distant relatives and even their servants.

The gifts were carefully repackaged back, and being carried off to the center dining room, while royal soldiers surrounded the manor and checked for security clearances, all the relatives came up to give congratulations and well wishes to the couple. Sakura thought Sasuke might've thrown a fit and start frowning, but to her surprise he greeted them with lukewarm reception and mild smiles and nodding. Even answering some superficial questions.

Then they had a large banquet with the best dancer and entertainers Haruno-San could afford, and drank and partied until the day turned late, all the relatives has been sent home.

Sasuke was half drunk by then, having drank out of curtesy with all her relatives. Years of drinking at court banquets has built up his tolerance. Sakura helped him to his quarters, newly prepared by her family.

She felt new waves of emotion today. She was torn between feeling embarrassed of her family doing something outrageous or has a outlandish request to the Prince, versus the Prince holding deep contempt for a common household like hers.

To her surprise neither of those things has happened, although her family did act kind of silly, but Sasuke handed it with such suave nobody thought it was embarrassing or awkward. When Sasuke was drunk, she personally helped him to his room and tended to his needs and undressed him.

Sasuke, in his tipsy state, held onto Sakura's hands for the longest time, and held it against his face.

"Sakura", he said, "you have the softest hands."

I want to hold onto them forever. He said to himself silently, and suddenly felt embarrassed, and quickly buried his face in her palms.

Sakura was dumbfounded. Drunk Prince was behaving like a child.

She quickly seized this chance and asked, "Your highness, have you ever played by a lake or river when you were young and almost drowned?"

"Maybe." Sasuke said, confused, "do you want to sleep with me?"

It was a completely innocent and genuine tone, but Sakura quickly got more embarrassed and pulled her hands away and pushed him down and tucked him in, "you should go to sleep."

"Ok." Sasuke breathed out, smiling at her softly.

She got more embarrassed and blew out the candle, "hurry. Shhh, don't speak now."

Sasuke was very obedient. He quickly fell asleep.

The next day Sasuke woke up at a very early hour, along with the rest of the household, for it's a day of honoring the ancestors. They geared up and travelled up to the near by monastery and graves to offer various offerings and burning of paper money. Sasuke, being the one who holds the highest status, led the team and knelt down at the front. Everyone followed and said their prayers for Haruno's ancestors.

It was up to the Prince how long he wanted to kneel and pray, but nobody dared to stand up before he did. Sasuke prayed for a long while, as if holding many many things in to say.

Sakura looked on, and saw the Prince adorned in plain clothing, for it's a sin to show flashy luxury in a graveyard, diligently reciting various prayers silently. She knew who he's doing all this for, and he's giving her so much affection and grace, it seems everybody in her family, or the entire city, knew of her now. The plain Haruno girl that turned around and became a Princess Consort to the Royal Prince. Every gesture he does, is for her. To protect her from public scrutiny, to elevate her status in the eye of commoners and his family. To prove to everyone of his immense affections for her.

He doesn't say it, though. Not a single word. He did all these without saying how much he loves her, how he wanted to be with her, and how she warmed him up, in the most depressive and mundane days of his life, and brought him heat and light.

He finished all prayers, and finally stood up, turning around to face her, with more confidence and assurance.

There were tears in her eyes, even without a single word spoken, she understood.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

TBC


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

The wedding day came by in a flash.

Several things happened before the wedding. The Dowager Empress sent an old maid over, and this maid supposably has served her and the young princes all her life, so she holds significant regard in court. The maid is named Chiyo, and she seemed to be extremely loyal to the Dowager Empress. She was in charge of teaching Sakura various court rules and manners, to which Sakura absorbs without complaint, but this does not mean she doesn't try her hardest to duck out of them whenever she has a change. Unfortunately for Sakura, Chiyo brought a small army of court maids that is able to find Sakura and nag her all the time, so she have to attend all etiquette sessions. There seem to be endless rules on etiquette. Most of which Sasuke doesn't care about.

Secondly, for the two months before the wedding, Sasuke did not touch her at all. She could feel a great restraint on his part though, and Sakura have mixed feeling about this. Part of her wants to say just get it over with, and another part is dreading, assuming it wouldn't live up to expectations. She was in her mid to late twenties in her previous life, and she has had sexual experience, and none of it was ever mind blowingly spectacular. She remembered the concubine that was with her when she first moved in, and how pretty they were—most of them.

Speaking of, those concubine have been sent away, and the only female that's eligible to climb onto his bed is her.

Third, he built a small courtyard for her. It was supposed to be a surprise the day when he took her to the Royal Court, and it formed its completion when they returned from their visit to the Haruno household. It was a nature scene courtyard, with willows, cherry blossoms, spring bushes, various succulents and large flowers planted in the most artistic manner, along with a fence in one section of the yard for wildlife. Sasuke went hunting a few times during these past two months, and often he would bring back something for her to keep. At first it was a fawn, then a small bunny, and most recently he gave her a baby duck.

It was fuzzy and brown all over. The Royal Prince, a man of few words, picked it up from some court official who tried to please him, and observed it for a few seconds. The poor creature croaked pathetically, its eyes bright and mischievous. Sasuke smiled and thanked the official with a simple nod and tossed it in Sakura's arms when he arrived back in their manor.

Sakura wondered how old he assume she was, because usually baby chicks and ducks are given to children. Nevertheless the little guy looked so cute, she held onto it and smothered it in hugs and kisses, then brought it back to the courtyard. Her attending maids were delirious with the little creature, bringing pots of water for the little guy to splash in. Until one young servant suddenly exclaimed, "look at its legs, why are they so long!"

It turns out the creature wasn't a duck, it was a baby crane. It haven't formed white features yet.

A little while later, Sakura wanted to do some gardening, so she cleared a space in the courtyard just for planting vegetables and berries. It was a weird adventure, despite many people's argument for against. They mainly avert the idea due to the smell. Fertilizers of the ancient are animal poop, and it might linger around the air for a while. Sakura, despite everyone's wishes, still planted gardens, and fertilized the soil with alfalfa seeds first.

Household affairs were slowly being taken over by Sakura. She has a hand in practically everything, and the butler slowly shifts his role towards reporting to Sakura for none emergency affairs. Such as wages, management of staff, rationing, entertainment and pleasure, finances, equipments and planning... Sakura did come from the 21st century after all. She has worked in corporate office and has gained various experiences, so she took these on with ease after getting familiar with them. She begin to think of ways to save, to stop spending money so luxuriously, and begin to find some charities to fund. She founded a few charities which are set up near the manor, and dismissed servants who wishes to be bought out of their contracts, and welcomed new young recruits who hoped to have a chance to prove themselves. She abolished corporal punishments under her management, and replaced it with more effective discipline strategies such as group discussion, counseling, and pay cuts. There were many more things she wanted to do, but she begin to ease into them bit by bit, hoping to manage the manor with more expeditious efforts.

Every night when Sasuke spends the nights at home, she would sit with him and tell him the changes she makes. Sometimes she would make mistakes, and she wouldn't complain. She would tell them with facts and immediately comes up with plans to rectify. Sometimes she would ask him for advice, and most of the time his answer would be, "Do as you wish" with adoration.

The days seemed to fly by when the wedding was upon them. Due to the fact that this was the Royal Prince's first wedding, despite the bride is not going to be an actual Princess, Princess consorts is pretty much as same as the actual Princess title. Sakura was the one in charge of all household duties, which were generally reserved for the Princess. It's been long rumored that the Prince would never take another Princess after Sakura, so everyone treated it like it's the only wedding the Prince will ever have.

On the day of the wedding, the whole street of the city center, all ten kilometer of it, were lined with red carpets and robes. Red lanterns were hung every two meters, and many, many red confetti and fire crackers were lit. The concession was at least fifty meters long, and there were two hundred children dressed in red all stood in rows throwing cherry blossom petals. All the important officials came, and Sakura rode in the most lavish red carriage garnished with dragons on each of the four corner of the roof. Her wedding gown alone weights eight kilograms, with a robe train extending three meters behind her, and embroidered with a phoenix so life like it looked as if it's going to burst into flames from her red robe. her hair was done up in an elaborate do with curls and twists framing her had, and various jewelries made form gold and jade totes and head crown that made her neck sore. Then her entire head was covered with a red silk clothes that could only be taken off by the Prince. She could barely walk with everything on her. Not to mention the fact her head was covered and she can't see. She was led by a child through the entire entrance into the manor, and arriving at a heavily decorated main courtyard.

A royal officiate was standing in the middle, bellowing out chants, and the couple bowed in between. The Prince does not look out of place at all in all red. He could be wearing rags and make it look fantastic.

Sakura was then led to the newlywed quarters while Sasuke went to entertain all the guests. She knew it would take a while for him to get back, so she flung the red head cover off and begin to eat some of the food being laid out on the tea table.

At the far end of the room, there was a chest decorated in gold trimmings, and Sakura, out of curiosity, opened it and saw what was inside.

It was an ivory seven-layered intricately carved ball. A present from the Emperor.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

TBC


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

When the Prince entered,Sakura quickly put her head covering back on her head.

Sasuke saw she tempered with the chest, and smiled before bringing it to the bed with him. He pulled the head covering off of her and said, "I knew you were going to be curious."

Sakura blushed seven shades of red, but fortunately her face has too much makeup to show it.

"It's an ivory ball." He said,taking the delicate thing the size of a large grapefruit out. "Interesting, no? This one depicts ancient sea serpents in seven layers. I once had one in nine layers."

Sakura begin to examine it as Sasuke handed it to her. "This looks interesting. Look at the carvings, it's so pretty and intricate." Each ball is entangled with the next, and the carvings are serpents'scales wrapping around one another. "Listen to the sound it makes, it sounds like a muffed wave. What happened to your nine layered one?"

"I think I smashed it into various pieces." Sasuke said absently. "I don't recall why."

Sakura looked at him, it was an often look she gave when she thinks he's spending way too much on unnecessary stuff. He adored that look, somehow he took it upon him to mean that she cared for him to save for him. He has never known the meaning of thrift, unlike his brother, who is the exemplar of an Emperor who does not waste his resources on trivial and flashy matters of the court.

She carefully put it back to where it belongs and placed the chest back onto the desk and patting it before returning to the bed, where Sasuke was already waiting, his robe half open and looking at her with tease.

She blushed again, "I need to get all the jewelries off..."

It was an heroic effort. With help from Sasuke, the jewelry she had on her filled up the tea-table. She then de-robed herself, carefully folded the bridal gown, which must've took a few seamstress a few hundred hours to make. Then she wiped away her makeup and washed her face thoroughly before turning to Sasuke, "Should I have my make-up on? I must look plain without it."

Sasuke pounced on her, "I like plain."

"Well that's easy for you to say,you were born pretty..." Sakura grumbled.

Sasuke laughed at her outrageous comments. It's very unusual to call a man pretty these days. If it had came from anyone else's mouth, they would be on their way to hell by now.

He hugged her and buried his head in her tresses. "Finally..."

Sakura tilted her head, "Pardon me?"

He didn't say anything more,and started to nibble on her neck before moving to her lips. She doesn't have any scent on. It's something she has insisted every single time she's been dressed. He likes her this way,simple and clean.

Sakura brushed his hair away and kissed him back. His body pressed closely against hers,and she could feel his heart pounding stronger than ever. It synchronized with hers.

XxxxxXxxxx

It was a long and passionate night for the newlyweds. Sasuke had to leave for court early, and Sakura slept way past noon. She got up just as Sasuke came back into the manor, and she quickly got dressed with helps from her attending servants. Sasuke was already waiting for her in the courtyard dining hall, while she quickly brushed her hair into a stylish but simple up-do,perfect for royal women who were already married.

Before she stepped out, she was rushed back in by Riku the elderly servant.

She had a bowl of medicine in front of her. Sakura knew what it was, it's to prevent her from getting pregnant. She looked confused for a second, before deciding she probably isn't particularly ready to get pregnant yet, so she drank it all up.

Riku knew she appealed to the right person as soon as Sakura entered the manner. Riku was an elderly servant who have served the Royal Prince for many years. She predicted the outcome, but she has never even dreamt that Sakura could become a Princess Consort. She guessed Sakura would bare Sasuke's child accidentally and the court would give her a empty gesture title and be done with it. Now that the Prince has officially welcomed his wife into the manor with elaborate traditions and ceremonies,hinting to the whole world that regardless of her title, she is his wife, through and through.

Riku wanted to appeal to Sakura, so she hinted quietly,"your grace, don't feel bad. This isn't coming from the Prince himself, it's the rule of the court."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked back.

Riku hesitated for a few moments before quietly answering, "Our Emperor does not have any children yet... it would be... bad form, if his young brother would have an off spring before he does..."

Sakura understood.

A royal pregnancy meant so much more in this circumstance. It meant the continuance of the family line,the protection of the throne, the establishment of every court officials, the safety and security of the army, and a long prosperous rule. Without one, the court's future hangs in uncertainty, and that's enough to make anyone nervous.

Riku quickly said, "but I'm sure the Emperor will have the next Crown Prince soon, so there's no need to worry."

Sakura said lightly, "I'm not worried." And proceed to put on her clothing.

Riku took that as sarcasm and silently cursed herself for giving out too much information.

Sakura rose and got ready for breakfast. She discovered, in great detail, that sex was a form of intense intimacy, therefore it has become a pleasure. He's still very dominating when it comes to sex, but it's to be expected, considering he never had to please anyone before. In bed, or other aspects of life.

Sakura doesn't have time to ponder the meaning of like and nature of love or if she's truly happy or not. She found herself constantly tangled in daily necessities of life and its problems. She had to take care of various issues around the manor. She didn't know this, but rumors were already circulating around her ways of doing things within and outside of these walls. They say the new Princess Consort is naturally prone to jealousy, so she sent away all the dancers that was kept within the manor. They also say she has an audacious way of managing the household which breaks tradition.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

TBC


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Sakura discovered she still have so much to learn about life here, just like how much she had to learn in her previous life. A lot of common sense she had to explicitly being told before it makes sense to her. This was made explicit to her when the Dowager Empress assigned a team of half a dozen elderly maids to look after the newlyweds as a way of "teaching the new bride a lesson or two of managing a household". Sakura naively thought it was actual to teach her something useful, but in actually it was to recite old manuscripts and traditional values of what it means to be a woman, which was outdated even by today's standards, let along a girl who came from a thousand years into the future.

Sakura is by no means an idiot. She can't start verbally gallivanting modern ideologies and expect everyone to be enlightened. Humans by nature need to be introduced and takes baby steps at a time, but at the same time, Sakura found herself extremely annoyed by the elderly maid, especially one named Chiyo, who does everything in her power to find some faults with Sakura, and eventually it has gotten to the point that Chiyo was in charge of delivering Sakura's medicine each morning, regardless of whether Sakura had been intimate with the Prince of not.

Sakura took it all in, because it was not in her nature to start causing riots, also she believed in fate and destiny. If she was not meant to be here one day she would be back to the future, and she would be ok with that. Her love for Sasuke is similar to a stream, flowing peacefully and quietly. She has not felt the passion of life and death for someone in a long time, and perhaps she never will. It was one of those things she pondered about when she had a moment to herself, wondering where has the years gone and why is she a woman in her twenties but trapped in the body of a 17 year old bride. At her age she should be falling in an out of love and have multiple dates, but she's married.

Tenten decided to one day to summon up the courage and ask Sakura what she should do about any potential dancers. She and a couple other girls are the only elder dancers left. She felt it was her duty to do something about it. Especially when nowadays the manor rarely has dancers performing during dinner. Only on the rare occasion when guests come, and Sasuke has been notoriously private about guests. Perhaps it was in his best interest not to entertain major political figures, but he frowned upon guests almost all the time.

Tenten stood in front of Sakura, only sitting down when she invited her to. Sakura found in dismay but as well as relief that after her marriage everyone sort of fell into their own perspective place. Everyone had a new level of respect for her and everything they do including the gestures heavily emphasis on that. In such a rigid and traditional focused society, Sakura felt suffocated, which is why she immediately asked Tenten to sit down, and the dark haired girl's eye shone with brightness and gratefulness as she sat down in a wooden chair lined with silk cushion next to her, and cleared her throat.

Sakura understood and sent her maids in waiting away.

"I was thinking, your highness." Tenten got all the pleasantries out of the way and Sakura waved as she said to motion for her to continue, "the dancer girls, as you know the manor hires in two waves. Once during the spring and once during the fall. We do our fair share around the household but we are dancers nevertheless. Some of the younger girls are getting impatient, and they've..."

Sakura understood. She has seen on the rare occasions when the younger dancers are allowed to show their face to the guests and main household they dress up so lavishly just for a chance to be noticed.

"Please don't get me wrong, we're not ungrateful, it's just that I feel like we might have better uses elsewhere. So I'm asking if there's any possibility to let us go-and we get to chase our own paths. Also from now on, it would be quite unnecessary to hire dancers as it is an extravagant cost without performances every night."

Sakura thought about this for a few minutes, all the while Tenten was sipping tea nervously. Tenten was having doubts about her visit now. She thought that coming from Sakura's perspective it wouldn't be in her best interest to have young girls hanging around the manor all the time, but then again, who doesn't have dancers in their manor? Dance troupes, along with stone statues of lion and gargoyle carvings are a sign of prosperity and a way to show off wealth. Especially the Royal Prince who has more wealth than what he knows to do with.

Sakura's thoughts were on the girls and Tenten herself, "I am inclined to let the dancers girl if that's what they wish. I need to discuss it with the Prince tonight, but at the same time, what will you do? You mentioned that you're arriving at an age where you are thinking about retiring from being a dancer?"

Tenten was touched that Sakura's thoughts were with her, "I was thinking about going back home to my village. I've been sending money to my family every month and all was well, my parents may need some help around the farm, if my brothers wants to go to school..."

She didn't finish her thought but Sakura understood what she was hinting. Going back to a rural village usually meant being set up by the village matchmaker and being married off. If you're lucky then you'd marry someone who uses their brains for a living, but if you're not that lucky then you might marry a butcher or a hunter whose living is fickle and dependent upon luck.

"How about you stay with me?" Sakura asked finally. "It might be a step down from what you usually do, but if you stay by my side and help me, I would treat you like a sister. You're the only one I trust, and you're one of the first friend I've ever made. I don't want to be without you."

Tenten nodded. Tears welled up in her eyes, but Sakura understood.

Sasuke came home that night with a furry little surprise inside his coat pocket. He thrusted the little fella in Sakura's embrace when she stood up to take his coat. She was taken by surprise and found out its a tiny but chubby little bunny. The bunny is obviously terrifies and its shivering in Sakura's hands. She was delirious, "Oh, where did you find it? It's precious!"

Sasuke hung his coat up himself and smiled at her, "during the hunt today, one of my men discovered it in a burrow. The mountains near the capital doesn't have big games anymore. I remember when we were young the Emperor would take us on these long hunting trips to catch exotic animals... Maybe I'll suggest it to my brother for the upcoming birthday..."

Sakura quickly fussed over the tiny thing by building a temporary little nest made from old rags and and a teacup of water for the bunny. She even found a few carrot scraps in the kitchen and brought it back to feed it. By the time she got back, Sasuke was speed reading the scrolls of the day.

Each day political figures likes to write each other letters discussing the future of this country. Sasuke occasionally gets some scrolls and most of the time he doesn't bother to reply to them. They're mostly for his brother, but out of curtesy they had someone replicate another copy for the other twin to keep him in the loop. He needs to be an clueless individual, but not an idiot. No country needs a prince who is an idiot.

Sasuke finished with the boring stuff and moved onto the scrolls Sakura wrote each day. She has a habit of keeping a journal of things, big or small, of the day and report back to Sasuke.

Sasuke read it with a teasing smile in his eyes, "release all dancers? Was this an executive decision?"

Sakura pouted but quickly composed herself and said, "I told Tenten I would talk to you about it, and if you agree, she would stay by me. I need a friend."

She was clear and succinct, Sasuke looked up from her journal and into her eyes, then smiled, "Alright then."

He leaned in to kiss her, and hugged her tightly within his arms.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

A/N: Sorry again for the late update and the late chapters. Please review to remind me to update more! This story is easier to write...


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Another couple months has gone by, and Chiyo reminded Sakura with sarcasm that the Emperor's birthday is coming and she should do something about it. Mainly to pick out the perfect gift for the ruler of this country. Every important household is doing it and Sakura cannot fall behind on this. She's the new bride of the Prince, therefore she should be particularly up to date with these sort of things.

Sakura spent a couple weeks of thinking what to get for the man who has an entire country within the palm of his hands, and the inspiration came when one morning when she's washing up and Tenten was helping her doing a particularly hard hairstyle and signed, "if only there's a mirror here."

Usually in the ancient time there were mirrors, but they're mostly carefully polished medal which reflect a crude image of the person. It's as if you're looking at yourself through a spoon. One can see the rough outlines but definitely not clear details. This made Sakura angry on more than one occasion when she felt a pimple coming up but could not get a reflection of herself clear enough to decide whether to pop it or leave it. Unlike most girls at this time, she has refused to wear any makeup. Sasuke thinks its part of her charm, but in actuality Sakura has been deathly afraid of lead and unknown chemicals make-up manufacturers are putting onto the powders.

To which Tenten replied, "but we have a perfectly good bronze one right here."

Yes, supposably the royal manor is able to afford something like this is amazing. Regular households probably can't afford a bronze mirror. But it annoys Sakura because she always felt like she's looking into a pool of water for her reflection every morning.

"I have an idea for a gift for the Emperor." Sakura exclaimed, "I'll make him a mirror!"

Tenten carefully reminded her of her husband. To which Sakura replied, "I have an even better idea! I'll make two mirrors, one for each bother!"

Sakura has no idea how to make a mirror in practice, but she has many ideas of how to make one in theory. It's glass plus a reflective dark material, and a coating, then an evaporator. She has read the fundamentals of mirror making in one of their various textbooks, but she never thought there'd be a day when she has to make one herself. She took Tenten and went visited the house staff blacksmith, and asked him to hire a glass blower in for the day, mercury, gold, and silver, and some aluminum sheets. The black smith apparently had tons of aluminum because he often makes handles and coating for various weapons.

It took her more than a day to make. She underestimated how difficult it was to make a mirror from scratch. Each piece of glass blown had to be polished, and Sakura was never happy with the size of the glass, until the glass blower suggested to make several smaller pieces at once and fuse them together then spend a ridiculous amount of time polishing them. This took the whole process of 3 days until they came up with two solid piece of full sized body glass.

The whole household stopped what they were doing at one point and went to the courtyard to see what Sakura was doing. Chiyo has expressed her distaste more than once, citing a good wife should be doing chores and mending instead of playing with metals and fire, but everyone ignored her.

Sakura learnt from her mistakes. She laid her polished smooths glass pieces aside and used failed pieces to coat with different chemicals as a test. She coated one with silver, one with gold, and one with mercury, and decided on the mercury to produce clearer image. Since she has already wasted many metals due to her testing of the temperature and melting them. She needs to know which consistency would produce the most smooth finish, and after countless attempts and melting down countless metals, she chose mercury.

After ensuring she would get a smooth finish, she carefully dipped both pieces of glass within a shallow pool of mercury one one side and then laid them out to dry under the sun. It took an entire day, in which she instructed everyone not to go near nor touch it, while everyone obeyed and carefully cleaned the courtyard and wiped it down. She coated them with several thin layers of gold to finish. The process took another few days as she worked tirelessly under the sun.

Then flipped the two pieces of glass around and to Sakura's surprise, they came out perfect. Well not as perfect as machine made industrial mirrors but as amazing as a modern mirror could be. Tenten saw it first and it gave her a complete scare, "it's like it captured me inside! This could be the stuff of stories and legends!"

Everyone in the household came by to check up on the new mirrors they credit Princess Consort Sakura has invented. Sakura stayed silent all the while hoping someone would see it and reveal to her that they themselves are also from the future and they could talk about how to get back. To no avail, no one made any strange comments other than to marvel at the extraordinary qualities of these clear mirrors.

Sasuke did not hope for something this amazing either. He let her tinker with whatever she wanted for the last couple weeks and he was thoroughly amazed with the result. He was particularity excited with the mirrors and ordered the best wood smith in town to make the most extravagant frame for these mirrors and encrust the frames with jewels and delicate carvings. Three days before their birthday, Sasuke took the one of the mirrors to the palace with him. He has eight servants carrying it for it's extremely delicate, and everyone who was carrying it knew that the fate of their lives lies within the mirror. They were transported into the Palace expeditiously.

Sasuke snuck into the Chamber first and instructed his guards to place the mirror right in the center covering it with a huge silk sheet. While he was waiting for the Emperor, he couldn't help but look around the room and realized that this is the same room that their father had died in. He wasn't here when father died, but Itachi was. He was probably standing right where he standing now, overlooking the ridiculously large bed and the vastness of the place.

Itachi came in, knowing his brother came to visit, he stopped one of the servants and asked them to bring some of Sasuke's favorite pastries over from the kitchen.

Sasuke was waiting anxiously when the Emperor came in. He paced back and forth and quickly exchanged pleasantries with him when Itachi sat down on the table and asked, "what is that?"

Sasuke quickly said, "I bet you'll never guess." Before Itachi could take a guess, he pulled the sheets off, and the mirror face was pointing right at Itachi.

The elder brother was startled slightly, but his expression didn't show. His eyes widened a bit before recovering and smiled kindly, "what is this contraption?"

"It's a mirror!" Sasuke said it in such way as if presenting the dearest possession to the world. "Princess Sakura made it," he cleverly omitted the word Consort, "I told her to take extra care of gift giving this year and she worked for two weeks straight to make this. I picked out and designed the frame. See? Dragons."

Itachi stood up and walked around the mirror with its smooth glass surface and intricate wood carvings and praised whole heartedly, "This is amazing."

"Isn't it?" Sasuke laughed, "You can see everything clear as day!"

Itachi took a few minutes to observe the instrument before looking into the mirror, then back at Sasuke, and said, "my dear little brother. We look so similar... I never realized."

Sasuke shrugged, "I guess people haven't been telling us how closely we look alike these days. They know we're sick and tired of hearing it."

Itachi smiled and returned to his regular demeanor of Emperor, "send my regards to your princess. I believe I do own her a gratitude for this wonderful gift."

Sasuke smiled softly, "will do."

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TBC


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

The brothers were born on the first day of December. Legends has it that the day they were born the sky was painted red from the glorious sunset, and everything was covered with a gold hue. Peacocks flocked to the gates of the Forbidden Palace all waiting for the twins arrival, and the moment Itachi was born, he was destined to rule. It's within his divine right.

Years later there were many paintings and books dedicated to the birth of this great ruler, nobody in the kingdom dared to disobey him due to several facts.

First, Itachi has total control of the military, as well as various feudal lords who control large pieces of land. He gives them treasure and land, but never military power. Second, he slaughtered everyone who opposed him, and third, he has begin a severe curb of extravagant things, making an example of the palace, and everyone else followed (everyone except for the Prince and a few greedy individuals), and spread the wealth back to the people. Fourth, he has established a total open system in which everyone and anyone can file complaints, with a just and fair judicial system to govern it.

This isn't to say that the country itself doesn't have problems. There's problems with every country, and for this one it mainly lies within the fact that the Emperor is about to turn 25 and he isn't married. His younger brother is. This provides ample opportunity for lords and kings of other nations to look upon this land with greed and speculate. If anything happens to the Emperor himself with no survival heir, then the kingdom will fall.

Both the Emperor and the Dowager Empress is very aware of this, but the difference between them is that the Dowager Empress is trying everything to get the Empress or one of his concubines pregnant, and the the Emperor couldn't care less, so he refuses to touch any of them. Always using tendon to political work as the convenient excuse to not to bed any of the girls, and so all the concubines including the Empress are currently without children.

This matter was brought up so frequently that Itachi has developed a facade stare to anyone who dare to mention it. Some still do, but they do it with such caution and carefulness that they became causal hints and wishes instead of advice.

This year, the brothers are turning 25.

The eve before a large banquet that's about to be held in the palace, Sasuke held Sakura in his arms at night and kissed her until she giggled and pushed him away to finish her report for the day. "Many of your presents arrived early today, they're in the courtyard, I told Riku to cover it up with a sheet in case it rains. I don't think it will rain..."

Sasuke waved absentmindedly, "It won't. He won't allow the gods to let rain fall."

Sakura then said worriedly, "I was going to talk to you about this, how do I behave tomorrow? I mean all the men are going to sit on one side and you will most likely be above the steps and I'm supposed to mingle with the rest of the wives? I'm very worried, I still haven't gotten the hang of court etiquette..."

Sasuke snuggled her closer and buried his head inside the crook of her neck, "don't worry about it. You just be you."

"But what if I made a scene?"

"Pretend it wasn't you and walk away."

Sakura looked at him with a deadpan squint.

He laughed and pinched her cheeks, "just copy everyone else. That's how I learnt them when I was five or six. I always copied my older brother."

He didn't mention that by the time they were seven, he accidentally copied Itachi and wore his bright golden robe that's reserved for the Emperor, and he was severely punished for it. In fact he made it a point to do everything the opposite his brother does.

Sakura could sense his discomfort and quickly wrapped her arms around him and said, "What did you want for your birthday? I know it's tomorrow, and I got you that mirror, but is there anything else?"

Sasuke took the time to think about it, "Not that I can think of."

Sakura had an idea, "how about you go to sleep and I'll cook something tomorrow for breakfast? I'll cook something amazing, something you've never seen before!"

He laughed and agreed.

The next morning Sakura woke before the sun came up. Sasuke is supposed to be up extra early due to his appearance at the Palace to dine breakfast with his family, therefore Sakura woke literally in the middle of the night, and prepared a light milk desert. She tried to make a street food she used to love when she was back in modern world, it's made from steamed milk, gelatin, and sugar. It's similar to a pudding, creamy and sweet with a caramel topping. Sakura choose to use egg whites since there aren't any gelatin package for sale here. It was fairly easy to make and Sakura went over the recipe over and over again in her head, and when the first break of dawn came, she carried it all the way from the kitchen to their chambers and sat it down in front of Sasuke, who was already all washed and dressed, sitting quietly at the table waiting for her. When she came in all careful, he looked at her with tenderness and excitement. Suddenly realizing that he haven't felt this way for the longest time, he couldn't remember the last time he was this happy.

She sat the desert down in front of him, and waiting for him to take a bite. It was still a bit dark within the room, the sun is slowly coming up, and he only has limited amount of time before he has to go to the Palace. She watched eagerly as he took the first spoonful and was expressionless.

Sasuke was thinking that it's lucky she's the one who brought the desert over to him because if it was anybody else he would slaughter them right then and there. He dislike milk products, and he dislikes anything overly sweet. Still he kept a stoic expression.

Sakura was carefully observing him, and seeing he give no reaction, she sat down next to him in puzzlement and took another dainty silver spoon and tasted a bite herself. It was the most delicious creamy pudding ever. There's nothing wrong with it, she didn't mess up the recipe. She put the spoon down and pouted at Sasuke, thinking this man is way too hard to please.

Sasuke knew what she's thinking and chuckled. He hugged her and put her on his lap and ate the pudding spoon by spoon while she lay her head upon his shoulders humming a soft and happy tune.

The sun rose above the courts, it was going to be a good day.

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A/N: Do you guys prefer I write each chapter and post them immediately or do you prefer I release them in a more consistent basis?


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

The court was filled with political figures and their spouses. All dressed in formal attire. This reminded Sakura of what it's like to be in a large festival of some sort, except in this one everyone is extremely courteous with each other. Everyone seemed to know everyone, and conveniently, everyone brought their daughters. Both brother has been through enough of these to know that everyone was hoping that one of these daughters would catch the eye of the Emperor and step to the path of glory and power, but unfortunately Itachi has never budged.

The court above all the steps sat four people. The Emperor, his brother, his mother, and the Empress. Everyone sat below them in rows. The left row sat the men, and the right ones sat the women. They were organized according to their ranks and status, and therefore Sakura sat a in the middle, not that close to Sasuke. She knew it was because she's a Princess Consort, but a true Princess. To be a true princess she'd have to have the approval of the court and be married into the family with a full title. She was ok with that, because she felt nervous around people who could behead anybody any minute according to their mood.

Everyone treated her with caution and curiosity, a few people have approached her to talk to her answered as politely as possible. They were usual questions, either on the weather, or the gift, or matters of the court, or household necessities. Everyone knew their place, and everyone knew exactly what to ask, when to ask it, and especially what not to ask. Sakura felt bored after a while, knowing these people are beaurocratic tools. She doesn't have much interest in politics, unlike the women of these bunch who desperately want to help their husband to climb up the political pole. To be fair the Prince can't really climb anymore.

Sasuke kept looking over to Sakura during the banquet and ceremonial dancing. He found himself constantly thinking about what she's doing and worry that she might get uncomfortable. He was right, Sakura looked on to the dances with fascination at first, but after a while she sat in their cushion and had both of her hands hid in long sleeves and prop herself up from the sides to keep herself from dozing off. Several times she nods her head abruptly but quickly regained herself. The ceremony and banquet lasted for the whole day and the evening banquet is the hardest one to get through. By this time everyone should be exhausted.

Itachi noticed his brother kept looking at his wife, and chuckled a little before teasing him, "Dear brother, she won't run away while you're not looking."

Sasuke quickly straightened his back and retorted childishly, "you don't understand."

After the ceremonial dance, Sakura was approached by a young servant who told her to follow him, because the Prince was waiting for her somewhere.

Sakura quietly finished her food and snuck out from the lavish palace hall. She followed the servants to a small sanctuary in a corner of the Palace. The sun went town, but each place was lit up by various lanterns. It seemed this place was nothing out of the ordinary except for a huge cherry blossom tree right in the middle of the courtyard. The moon was bright and full that night, shining upon the freshly fallen snow and the empty branches of the tree.

Sasuke stood underneath the tree waiting for her. The entire scene painted in a subtle blue hue, and he was adorned in silvery robes. Normally he'd wear black, but one should never wear that color on their birthday. This is the robe Sakura hugged him in this morning, its train drifting along the snow, and the embroidery seemed so life life they could leap off of Sasuke any moment.

Sasuke turned around, his eyes softened when he saw her, and extended his hand towards her.

She reached him and fell into his embrace. Her head accessories dangling and long sleeves all tangled up. Sasuke spent the better part of a minute taking some unnecessary jewelries off of her and found her hands inside her sleeves.

"This is where we were born, and this is where I grew up." Sasuke said, leading her further into the courtyard. Sakura followed obediently, and they arrived in front of a series of decorative rocks. He led her into the crevices and showed her the corner of a rock, and on the surface there's a faint but recognizable childish squiggly writing of Sasuke's name. Also the symbol for "is the best".

Sakura smiled at the childish writing, and Sasuke quickly buried it up with soft moss and dirt.

"When did you write this?" Sakura asked, chuckling.

Sasuke said, "when I was 6 I guess. Before I had my formal education."

"I heard when you were born peacocks flown by, and the sky was bright red." Sakura said half teasingly.

Sasuke gave her a half scolding half adoration look, it looked like she has the audacity to tease him now. He squeezed her hands and said, "I bet it was a normal day. You know how people love to exaggerate. I knew father wasn't present when we were born, despite historical records. He has had so many sons and daughters, and now we're the only ones left."

"Really? I didn't know you had other siblings other than the Emperor."

"I had 24 siblings." Sasuke said lightly.

Sakura fell silent, and Sasuke didn't want this moment to be ruined, so he led her out of the courtyard and into a path that seem to be leading to a much grander place within the Palace.

There were four guards standing outside, guarding the place. Sasuke walked up and said, "let me in."

None of the guards acknowledge his existence.

Sasuke laughed and walked back to Sakura, "this is the place where my brother is keeping the love of his life."

"What?" Sakura was startled, "but I just saw the Empress."

Sasuke led her away and and whispered in her ear, "this is different. This girl once saved my brother's life and fell into a coma of some sort and never woke up. My brother tried everything but nothing worked, so he swore to always love and protect this girl and wait until she wakes up."

Sakura thought it was the strangest thing in existence, "how can one hold the future of their happiness over an unconscious person? what if she never wakes up?"

Sasuke shrugged, "then my brother will never have an heir. Many people tried to get a way past this, urging him hurry and produce and heir, but he never did. He's guarding her in that room, and no is ever allowed to enter unless it's under his strict supervision. Not even me." And especially not their mother.

The two walked past the courtyards hand in hand, as snow begin to fell. Sasuke looked up at the moon and said, "it must be past midnight."

They walked past various gates and steps, until they arrived at the final gate and wait for their carriage to come by. Once it came Sakura leaned into Sasuke and curled up in his embrace, "how did that girl save the Emperor?"

Sasuke wrapped Sakura in his arms and toyed with her hair, "I don't quite recall, but I think she dove into a lake to save him from drowning."

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TBC


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

The carriage rode on.

Sakura has just had a revelation. The boy in her dreams looked exactly like Sasuke but it was actually the Emperor. Several facts didn't make sense though. First of all the the Emperor exists within this time line, why was her memory back in the modern timeline? Second of all, who is the girl lying in a comatose state? Is she alright? Thirdly, she was not the first one to travel here, proven by the fact the existence of refined chocolate.

She thought about them for the majority of the ride, and finally she raised her head to look at the Prince, who closed his eyes and was in deep ruminative state.

She snuck her arms around his neck and softly kissed his chin, then his lips.

Sasuke was surprised by her, usually he'd be the one that make the first move. He felt extremely happy though, and quickly kissed her back, placing his hands on her waist pulled her closer until the two bodies touched.

By the time they reached home. Sakura was way too tied to walk. She dozed off in his arms, and Sasuke carried her all the way from the carriage across the courtyards into their private chambers. All throughout the paths many servants came and knelt down, waiting for their arrival. None of them knew what to say, for it's inappropriate to carry the Princess Consort themselves, and it's even more frightening to imagine that the Prince is actually doing work for the sake of others.

Luckily no one spoke except to lit the lamps to light his way. Sasuke carried his bride safely back to bed, and took off her outer clothes himself. He didn't ask for help undressing either, he took care of everything himself and climbed into bed with her, wrapped her in his embrace and burying his head in the crook of her neck before falling into a deep slumber.

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Sasuke arrived in court with a big smile on his face. After the initial daily political debate, Sasuke stayed behind.

Itachi saw Sasuke was in a good mood and felt genuinely happy for him. It's wonderful that he has found something that made him so happy. He remembered Sasuke has built a reputation for himself to be drowning in eternal cruelty and moodiness. Everyone must tiptoe around him or suffer his wrath. He watched his younger brother sank deeper and deeper into violence and rage, and he couldn't help but feel if they're talking about blame and guilt, he might be shouldering the biggest part.

"What is it?" Itachi asked as they retired to his private chambers. He already ordered a exquisite tea that was harvest from the tender young leaves and brewed in morning dew. It's one of the rare delicacies one of the foreign ministers brought as a gift and Itachi has been saving it until Sasuke comes.

Sasuke was used to all these spoilt gifts his brother gave him and he too in no shame enjoying them. He always acted more childish in front of his brother, despite their actual age difference is less than two minutes.

"I was wondering if you wanted to host a hunting game during the New Years!" Sasuke said with enthusiasm.

Itachi fell silent for a few moments before looking back at Sasuke with a smile on his lips, "how did you know I was thinking exactly just that."

Sasuke laughed triumphantly.

In the few moments Itachi fell silent, he contemplated all the pros and cons of having a hunting party. This would mean organize a large parade of people, several hundred guards at least, various political officials will want to follow suit, many equipments and carriages, and to pick the perfect place that wouldn't freeze them to death and at the same time would be perfectly safe for royalty to visit. This would definitely take some planning, and with New Years around three months away, it's doable.

More than anything, Itachi wanted to make Sasuke happy. Also it's been a while since he went on a good tripm outside of the palace. As the ruler of the country it would be a shame to never visit the country itself.

"Where were you thinking?"

Sasuke thought about it and shrugged, "we could do the usual place, where Father took us."

Itachi asked him, "The south is quite unstable at the moment. What about further north? Edge of the Snow Country, by the time New Years comes the snow would have melted and it wouldn't be too cold, as well as wild game would've come out of hibernation."

"Good idea." Sasuke praised, "were you thinking about near the Towers the mountains?"

"Yes exactly. It's a fairly peaceful village." Itachi said, "am I wrong to assume your new princess will be joining us?"

Sasuke said shamelessly, "You would be wise to assume that."

Itachi smiled for the first time that day, and called in a few servants to pass on the message so they'd start their planning."

Sasuke stayed for a brief tea before standing to leave. He had achieved what he wanted. Itachi asked him to lunch, but Sasuke shook his head and said, "Sakura's waiting for me to have lunch. She'd be worried if I don't come home like I promised."

Itachi watched as his younger brother practically bounced off the steps of the court and out the golden gates, while he got ready to change attire for lunch within this elaborate Palace, with many people serving him, but he would be entirely alone.

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The previous Emperor also had many siblings. When he came to power, most of them died. Except for the brother who always stood by his side, The previous Royal Prince.

The Royal Prince back then was not the Emperor's true brother. They were born from different mothers, but due to his support of the Emperor during the rebellion he was given a large manor and some land. He stayed out of politics too, as well as lived his life like a normal feudal lord for years and years.

When the previous Emperor's health begin to fail, a smaller country begin to invade the citadel, and it turned out that the Royal Prince has been coercing with the enemy for many years, waiting for the right opportunity.

Of all the princes who were alive back then, Itachi and Sasuke were not their father's favorite ones due to their youth. They were the only ones who volunteered to fight against the rebels, and the Emperor permitted them. Itachi wasn't the eldest prince. It wasn't until the two came back victorious before the Emperor begin to see them in a more serious light, in addition the eldest prince was spoiled and incompetent, the Emperor declared Itachi to be the crowned prince destined for the role of future emperor. The boys were 13 at the time.

Of course when people tell the stories now they would begin with how our current Emperor was supposed to rule from the moment he was born, he was exceptional in every way and was loved by all, and all the gods sent their blessing down to earth... blah, blah, blah.

The road to power was often paved with many skeletons of loved ones.

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TBC


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

When Sasuke came back to the manor, Sakura was making playing cards and board games with Tenten and some of the younger servant girls.

One of the downside of having no internet was that life can be pretty boring, and luckily Sakura remembered what her childhood was like without the World Wide Web, she played various little games and toys, including cards, board games, feathered kicking ball, long elastic to do crosses with, jump ropes, and many more. She sent the design in for playing cards a long time ago and today they're finally here. There was one set that's built with wooden think crisp deck, and another with paper. Sakura was teaching Tenten and the girls how to playing simple card games while doing some card tricks she learnt a long time ago.

Sasuke came in and saw the girls chatting happily in the gazebos and decided to see that all the fusses were all about, and when he approaches the girls immediately stopped what they were doing and stood by at the side while bowing their head down. Sakura was having fun one minute and the next everyone was gone, she looked up in a grumpy mood and saw Sasuke's figure towering the marble table, she immediately threw herself over her cards and said, "your grace! you're back so early."

"Disappointed?" Sasuke asked in a teasing tone.

"No no." Sakura immediately shook her head, "Just surprised! Haha..." She hoped he would leave her alone and move on. But he stood there, looking down at her without a single inclination of moving.

She reluctantly uncovered her cards and confessed, "I've been wanting to play some card games..."

To her surprise he seems interested, "show me."

She thought he must've had nothing else to do that day, so she straightened the decks and begin to teach him the simplest rule of playing cards, while explaining what a desk consist of, and the numbers and symbols and their meaning. The other girls quickly went to the kitchen to bring some snacks and tea for the couple.

Sasuke listened intently while they had a practice run, then they begin to play blackjack. Sakura has had a few experience with it for a while, and for the first few hands she won most of the time, until Sasuke too, has figured out the trick and start memorizing cards. Sakura kept loosing, and she pouted and said, "let's play another one."

She begin to teach him poker, thinking the rules must've made him more confused than ever. Out of the goodness of her heart she drew a diagram for him detailing the biggest hand to the smallest, and Sasuke looked over the diagram for a few minutes before playing, and the same thing happened. Sakura won the first few hands and Sakura lost most of the time as the game progresses.

The games went on until Sakura threw her cards on the table, "I'm hungry."

Sasuke smiled softly while pulling her into his arms, "let's go have lunch."

Sasuke begin to develop a dislike for servants in the dining room during meal times except for Sakura. So he sent everyone away, and Sakura had to be in charge of him getting proper nutrition, which is a pain because she'd rather enjoy eating without serving anyone else, but when he finished whatever in his plate he looks at her with such longing and expectation she can't help it but fill his plates up again. Also another rule that she rarely obeys is whenever the master of the household finishes eating, everyone had to stop eating. Sasuke didn't expect her to follow the rule, but whenever he's done he puts his utensils down and looks at her while she eats. Occasionally chiming in remarks such as "you should eat more carrots." "Does that taste good? No thanks I'm full." And this made her quickly scarf down a few delicacies before she looses her appetite through sheer annoyance and send in servants to clear the table.

After lunch there were soup and deserts, and that was when Sasuke told Sakura about the hunting trip.

"Up North? Wouldn't it be very cold?"

"It's near the sea, as well as New Years comes on February. It wouldn't be terribly cold." Sasuke said, his eyes bright. "There's mountain ranges near by with a few remote villages. The city were heading to is surrounded by fortresses. You'll be safe and snug by the fireplace while I go hunt the rarest game. You'll love it there, there's northern lights at night, as well as the annual spring ice sculpture festival..."

Sakura's eyes sparkled, and that's when Sasuke learnt he hit the jackpot. His new bride isn't interested in fine silk, gold or jewelry, but rather things that are unusual and interesting. Perhaps this is why she's able to invent so many new items, it must be due to her natural curiosity. He has never met anyone like this, and he suddenly felt immensely lucky that he's the one who loved her first, before she was snatched away by a regular person and became the wife of a commoner.

In Sasuke's eyes, everyone other than the Emperor and himself were considered commoners.

Chiyo interrupted their meal with a message from the Palace. The Dowager Empress requested every female spouse of important political members of the court to attend a small gathering in the Palace next week, as they make their yearly trip to the royal cemetery nearby and pray to the ancestors.

All throughout the next few days Sakura was listening to Chiyo's lessons about how to behave in front of the Dowager Empress, and what do look for, subtle cues, hints, and general mannerisms.

It wasn't until late into the afternoon Sakura had a breather to herself. She called Riku over, who have been serving the court ever since she was a young girl, which was over 50 years ago.

Sakura quickly exchanged polite courtesies with Riku, then asked her if there's anything she needed in particular. Riku didn't know what she wanted, so the elderly servant kicked the ball back to Sakura's court by saying, "Princess, it's unusual for me to make a request out of the blue. However I've only ever been nothing but faithful to the Prince. If there's anything you need, please don't hesitate to ask, and I will answer to the best of my abilities."

Sakura thought there's no point in hiding, so she begin, "I actually wanted to know more about the Dowager Empress. Specifically what happened to her when she was younger, and any general information that could help me to get ready for the banquet coming up... You see, I'm constantly afraid of causing trouble for the Prince..."

Riku smiled, "Of course."

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TBC


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

The Dowager Empress's name has long been forgotten in the minds of the people because it was rarely used by anyone. People who see her often greet her with her formal title, or with their relationship to her. When she was young, her mother called her Mikoto-chan, and she was known as that until she had grown to 12 years old and automatically sent off to the Palace as the Emperor's concubine.

Each year the Emperor hosts a large selection of concubines, as was tradition. There has never been a violation of tradition, and usually each Emperor in history has never had any problems with conceiving one off spring after another. Same with this current Emperor.

Mikoto was born in an ordinary family of the 4th or 5th level in political ladder, and her father had five daughters and two sons. Most attention automatically focused on the sons, but they treated Mikoto with adequate care. Growing up with 4 other sisters competing for affections, Mikoto knew her fate was sealed to be sent off to the palace a long time ago. Most government officials are like this. They send in their daughters and hope one of them will be lucky enough to catch the Emperor's eye, and her family will rise all the way to the top.

The year Mikoto entered the palace, there was 50 other girls selected with her, and she was nothing more than plain and ordinary.

She continued to stay like that for the next ten years, rarely had the chance to see the Emperor herself. She was stationed in a small shared quarters with three other girls for the longest time, and has been competing, although fruitlessly, for the attention of the Emperor.

The Emperor never took any notice.

Until Mikoto has had enough, and she decided she refuse to waste another year in this godforsaken place, but once a concubine she will always be a concubine. She will either be buried with the Emperor when he dies of old age, or she herself die of old age before the Emperor had the chance to.

She consulted her family in secret, and decided to pay tribute to the largest and most distinguished temple and consult a highly famous and trustworthy monk on what she should do. The monk told her that her time has yet to come. She and her son are destined for greatness, if she's willing do an unthinkable act. That is, to get rid of the current crowned prince, who was just a toddler at the time.

The monk didn't exactly use the word kill, but Mikoto got the idea.

And so during an afternoon tea party, the young crowned prince fell into a deep pond by accident, and the there were no guards present because the Emperor had been engaging in flirtatious fun with various concubines. Mikoto was the one who dove into the water in attempt to save the small toddler. But she did it for appearances, and it's been such a long time ago, even she couldn't tell whether she had been saving the young crowned prince but failed due to her lack of strength, or did she purposely pulled on his leg to drag him down further. She doesn't remember, or rather, she didn't want to remember, but the end result was by the time the two were pulled up to the shore, the young prince had been without oxygen for way too long, and became mentally deficient.

Mikoto was unconscious as well but did not suffer great injury, and her heroic attempts did not go unnoticed. The Emperor immediately promoted her up a few levels and bedded her after she got better.

This was a devastating blow to the Empress at the time, having a capable son reduced to a handicapped boy who may never be able to read or write, as well as loosing the favoritism of her husband. She committed suicide soon after the news that Mikoto was pregnant with twins.

When Mikoto gave birth to the two boys, she wasn't the Emperor's favorite concubine. She wasn't even in the top ten. She was older than other younger and fresher girls, and there was the possibility that she could gave birth to girls. When the boys were born, she was alone other than a midwife and a couple hand maidens. The Emperor already had many sons and daughters, her sons won't be the first, nor will they be the last.

Luck was finally on her side when she gave birth to two beautiful boys, and the Emperor paid her a visit, having been pleased with gaining two potential heirs and his own fecund masculinity, he promoted her to a better place within the palace, and had her taken better care of.

Mikoto raised her boys quietly throughout the next few years, and she observed as the other women in the palace ruthlessly manipulated and killed each other and their offsprings, until it became quite evident that Itachi was to be the crowned prince. The fact the two boys went off to war and came back victorious just sealed the deal.

She has devoted all her attention and effort to Itachi. This wasn't without reason. When the boys were just born, she went to the same monk who had given her advice before, and asked him which one is destined for greatness, and the monk answered the elder one is destined to be the ruler of this country, exceeding his father, but the younger one would be cursed, and its best to avoid him and keep him away from power.

Mikoto has never forgotten his prophecy.

When Itachi became Emperor, she spent the next few years to promote her own family into court and raise their status. She ensured her own relatives held important government positions, her two brother ascended to war generals, her sisters all married important political figures, ands she had most power and control of the state; and she could do whatever she wanted due to her son being the Emperor, her obsessive behavior extended to the point of having a distant niece marrying Itachi, so someone from her own side of the family would be the next Empress.

She summoned her niece to the palace, she had a huge banquet set up, and invited that monk.

The monk, perhaps have had too much pride and confidence in mind, thinking that the Dowager Empress trust him unconditionally, praised the young Emperor, and then approved of the potential marriage, as well as commented on the fate of everyone present, including Sasuke, as a side note, that Sasuke is the cursed Prince and shouldn't be allowed within court.

Sasuke was 17 at the time, and upon hearing this, he stood up in the middle of the banquet, grabbed a sword from the nearby guard, and with a swing, he decapitated the monk.

Then he pointed his sword to Mikoto's niece and said to his mother, "I want her to marry me instead of the Emperor."

The niece was terrified, she declined the marriage proposal and said she wants to devote her life to the gods as a miko, and will never get involved with the affairs of the state.

Itachi watched the whole scene in his jade throne without raising a single eyebrow or utter a single syllable. After the whole dust has settled and everyone turned to look at him, he apologized for the ruckus, and turned to his Mikoto and said, "Mother, after all this time, you must have been tired. Go back to your chambers and rest, we'll come and visit you tomorrow."

Mikoto stared down at the court, her two sons staring back at her, the corpse of a monk, and her terrified niece, and hundreds of court officials present. It was then when she realized that she has lost control of her sons forever. The boy she had given everything to, had forsaken her.

The next day, Itachi crowned his mother the "Great Dowager Empress". Adding an honorary title that has never been seen before in history.

She retired from matters of the state and gave full reins to Itachi, and became in every sense of the word, a Great Dowager Empress. A figure without authority or powder. With only a title, holed up in a corner of the grand Palace, waiting for death.

Just like years ago, when she first came to the palace. She was 12.

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A/N: I tried hard to fix the tenses in this chapter in particular. I've always hadn't a tendency problem haha. Tell me any mistakes I've made


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Sakura entered the palace with a reverence and sense of anxiety that she'll make a fool of herself in front of the Dowager Empress. Her worries were not unfounded and were indeed necessary because the Dowager Empress purposely placed her in front of the center of attention during the entire ceremony.

She first had Sakura knelt down in the middle of the room and introduce herself to everyone present, and everyone had to repeat back their introduction, family name, and their title. Something Sakura had to struggle to remember immediately, for it she doesn't it's a great disrespect to the individual.

She uttered words of blessing to the Empress, and the party of female royalty proceeded on to going up to a mountain and reach the temple where all the tombs of the ancestors were.

The Dowager Empress and the Empress lead the way in the front, Sakura followed them in largely elaborate robes and clothing, and climbed the stairs of the mountain step by step. It has been said that no one has the authority to ride a carriage up to the mountain because it is a sign of great disrespect. The stairs were symbolic of cleansing of the souls and mind, by exhausting the physical.

When they arrived to the top, they were greeted by elderly monks who have been familiar with the Royal family before, and made their introduction to Sakura, led them into the temple.

This is a grand temple for the previous emperor must've spent a lot of manpower and resources to build an elaborate place of holy worship. Sakura couldn't help but think this is an extreme waste and isn't in accordance with the current Emperor's frugal policies. But the Dowager Empress enjoys the temple's luxuries very much, for she offered up a treasure chest full of silver coins as donation.

The party moved on to the cemetery behind the temple, and it's built with marbled tomb stones and brick fences, The color was painted pristine white, no doubt recently retouched for this visits.

They visited each grave of the past emperors and knelt down to pay their respects and give blessing to the current Emperor. As Sakura looked on to the hundred of people, whether they are royalty or attendees and wondered if they realize in another few hundred years, the world would change so immensely that authoritarian rule would dissipate, and it is exactly the stubbornness and traditions of the royal family that made them disappear into a footnote in history of mankind.

After the tribute, everyone gathered back at the temple and rows of dining desks were set up with seat cushions next to them. Sakura's place was purposely sat next to the Dowager Empress, and she felt being scrutinized astute Dowager begin to proceed to having a conversation with her.

"Haruno-san." The Dowager Empress addressed her by her maiden last name, and said, "I have always had trouble with my two sons, and now that Sasuke is married, no words could express my gratitude. I prayed to the Gods thanking them to have my prayer answered. Do you know what I pray for now, with one thing off my mind?"

Sakura expressed in minimal words that she could not.

"A child, Sakura-san." The Dowager Empress didn't beat around the bush. She spoke slowly and with emphasis. Each time she speaks Sakura had to put down her eating utensils and listening to her words.

"A royal child." The Dowager Empress continued, "someone to take care of this great country after Itachi."

Sakura understood, she doesn't mean that Sakura should hurry up and get pregnant, she meant that Sakura should not get pregnant before the crowned prince was born.

"Dowager Empress, you do not have to worry, an heir will come, and he will rule over the country with great vigor, just like our current ruler." Sakura added a bit of a flourish to her words, hoping the Dowager Empress could stop talking to her.

"I have no qualms about my son, however, it would be a shame if a child was born that does not belong in its place."

Sakura nodded in agreement, while thinking that finally she turned her spear and pointed it right at Sakura's stomach. This is no less than a threat.

The Dowager Empress continued, "tradition, it is of the utmost importance in the world. Tradition dictates our lives and understanding. Tradition enforces rules and obedience. Naturally everything have to follow a grand order, doesn't it, Haruno-san?"

Sakura thought that if everything followed the proper order then she should be calling Sakura by her married last name by now, whom they share. Her contradictory statements were met with enthusiasm and nods as Sakura ate sparingly hoping this day would end quicker.

The Dowager Empress turned to the Empress and spoke with her for the rest of the meal, and Sakura was left to eat in peace. The Empress give Sakura a sympathetic look as she quickly received the Dowager Empress's attention with a lovely facade.

As the huge party proceeded down the mountain, they were surprised to find a small battle troop waiting at the foot of the mountain, wearing the royal family crest. Upon further investigation it turned out that Sasuke came in a carriage, waiting for Sakura.

This was highly irregular as the officials waited for their wives inside the palace. Sasuke apparently couldn't wait this long. He got off his house and knelt down in front of the Dowager Empress and asked for forgiveness, and at the same time repeated caring pleasantries asking if the Dowager Empress had a spiritual time as she had hoped to gain.

Mikoto looked down at her son with a weariness and waved her hand and gave them permission to leave. Sakura, in font of all the wives of officials and royalty, walked towards her husband and into his outreaching hands and arms. Now everyone in the country knows how much love he dotes on her.

He kissed her finger tips and helped her on the carriage, and left quickly, leaving everyone behind.

"I missed you." Was the first thing he said, hugging her in their cozy little carriage, lined with soft satin pillows and cotton backrests.

Sakura thought about today, and said, "Your highness, maybe consider visiting the Dowager Empress more in the future? She looks lonely."

Sasuke's grip on her waist tightened and said in a cold voice, "you've overstepped your bounds."

Sakura froze up.

This family was built upon a pile of bones. Bones of their relatives. One cannot use the normative familial bonds to measure them. Sakura doesn't know this, and she spoke out of turn.

Sasuke felt her stiffness and soothed her shoulders, "Silly Sakura. You probably thought we're a common family of silk merchants, like you."

Sakura pouted, feeling mistreated. She quickly buried her head in his adoring embrace, hoping to hide her tears. He chuckled lightly, and stroked her hair. He knew he had to correct her impression before she spoke out of turn again in situations where he couldn't protect her.

Something that comes from natural instinct, a love between a mother and her son, was stripped away in royalty. There's too much at stake, too many things juggling in the air, and this bond between his brother and him, was especially rare because it shouldn't have existed. Even though, he counts the times he's been in the palace each month, each week, careful never to get involved in policies, and remembered that he's not the Emperor, and he never will be.

Sometimes he couldn't differentiate his feelings. Because everyone acted as if they're threatened by his military prowess, he wondered if there'a a part of him caged deep in his unconsciousness waiting to be broken free and claim the throne as his own. He doesn't know, and he doesn't want to ever have the opportunity to find out.

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A/N: I've decided to speed this story up a bit, and next chapter will get into the next major arc. Thank you all for your patience. Please keep reminding me to update, they're my motivation to continue.


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